Body 26

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Body 26
Discovered	December 29, 1978
Unidentified for	45 years
Sex	Male
Location	Norwood Park, Illinois
Age	22-30
Race	White
Height	5'2 - 5'6
Body condition	Skeletal
Postmortem interval	2 years
Cause of death	Homicide

"Body 26" is one of five unidentified victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

Case

The victim was located in the southeast corner of a mass grave site in the crawl space of Gacy's home at 15:45 on December 29, 1978. This decedent was buried face-downwards in the crawl space, approximately two feet, seven inches beneath the surface of the top soil. The victim was completely nude. Material described as "cloth-like" was discovered lodged in his mouth, most likely causing him to die of suffocation.

This victim was most likely killed between June 13 and August 6, 1976, based on the communal grave in which he was buried. The victim was found buried directly underneath the bodies of Rick Johnston (Body 23) and Jimmy Haakenson (Body 24). Both victims, the latter identified in 2017, are believed to have died on the final day of the estimated death range.

Based on Gacy's history, Body 26 was likely lured to the home or abducted after encountering the serial killer at an unknown location within the city of Chicago. Each victim was tortured and sexually assaulted.

The other unidentified victims of Gacy are Body 10, Body 13, Body 21 and Body 28.

Characteristics

• Medium to dark brown hair
• Absence of two upper-front teeth
  • He possibly wore a partial denture to conceal this.

Gallery

Victim 26. Lower size but exc. higher resolution quality for size.

Exclusions

• William Shields
• Brian Page
• Tony Allen
• David Boniske
• Earl Joggerst
• John Deeny
• Michael Mansfield
• Orin Anderson
• Jeffrey Stinnett
• Randy Maciuba
• Andrew Memmelaar
• Dermot Kelly
• Rickey Enochs

Sources

• Body 26 at the Doe Network
• Body 26 at NamUs
• John Wayne Gacy on Wikipedia
• Cook County Police Department