Mother who spent 32 years tending son's grave despite doubts it was his body is finally vindicated after DNA proves remains of John Wayne Gacy victim are NOT her boy

As Sherry Marino made her way to the cemetery on Wednesday to tend the grave marked with her son’s name, she got a call from her lawyers - the body wasn't his.

It was the news she had been waiting more than 30 years to hear. Tests had confirmed that the remains of one of John Wayne Gacy’s victims which police told her in 1980 were her missing son Michael Marino did not match her DNA.

In 1978, police identified one of the bodies found on Gacy’s property in Norwood Park Township, Illinois as her son. He was 14 when he disappeared in 1976 and investigators had used dental records to identify him in 1980.

For years Marino had fought to have the grave exhumed and now almost 36 years after her son first disappeared her long-held misgivings were proved to be well-founded.

Scientists at a North Carolina laboratory compared bone DNA of the victim to that provided by Sherry Marino and determined that they could not be related.

'We are very happy that we followed through because her suspicions were 100 percent correct,' Steven Becker, who represents Sherry Marino, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

'She hopes the information about his misidentification will bring more leads to find Michael.'

After years of tending the grave, but convinced that it wasn't Michael, Marino approached Becker and Robert Stephenson of Becker Stephenson, who agreed to work on her behalf, pro bono.

After fighting bureaucracy, they succeeded in finally having the body unearthed.

Late last year, Sherry Marino requested that the body, one of more than two dozen found in the crawlspace of Gacy's home in late 1978, be exhumed to determine if the remains buried at the cemetery were her son's.

Days later, the Cook County Sheriff's department said it had exhumed the remains of several young men believed to be, but never identified, as Gacy victims.

During last year's hearing, Sherry Marino's attorneys said she wondered why the clothes on the remains did not match the clothing she remembers seeing her son wear the day he disappeared.

Further, they said she never understood why it took more than three years to identify her son, despite the fact that she provided dental records shortly after the bodies were discovered.

Even her attorneys has acknowledged that there was strong circumstantial evidence that the remains - identified as 'body 14' - were those of Michael Marino, including that the remains were found in Gacy's crawl space next to those of Marino's friend, Kenneth Parker, who disappeared the same day.

The orthodontist who initially examined Gacy's victims remains convinced his findings are correct.

'The dental identification is just 100 percent solid, absolutely no question,' said Dr. Edward Pavlik. 'We compared 32 teeth, probably half a dozen of them had very distinct fillings and every tooth was consistent with the dental records of Michael Marino.'

The attorneys said Thursday that the lab's findings do not necessarily mean Marino was not a Gacy victim, but that it raises questions, such as whether other victims may have been misidentified.

'We don't know where Michael Marino is but what we do know is he's not buried in Queen of Heaven Cemetery under a tombstone that says "Michael Marino,"' Becker said.

Gacy, a building contractor and amateur clown, was convicted of luring 33 young men and boys to Chicago-area home and strangling them between 1972 and 1978, sentenced to death and executed in 1994.

Saturday 27 October 2012

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2223575/DNA-proves-remains-John-Wayne-Gacy-victim-Michael-Marino-NOT-his.html