John Wayne Gacy - Victims - Possible Additional Victims

Possible Additional Victims

At the time of Gacy's arrest he had claimed to both Des Plaines and Chicago investigators that the total number of victims he had killed could be as high as 45. However, only 33 bodies were ever found which were linked to Gacy. Investigators did excavate the grounds of his property until they had exposed the substrata of clay beneath the foundations, yet only 29 bodies were found buried upon his property.

On May 8, 1977, a 26-year-old named Charles Hattula was found drowned in a river near Freeport, Illinois. Hattula, an employee of PDM Contractors, had been linked to the initial investigation of Gacy after Robert Piest's disappearance; this was after the same employee who had informed the investigators of Gregory Godzik's disappearance informed them of Hattula's death. Moreover, this employee had stated that Hattula was known to have conflicts with Gacy. Gacy had himself informed several of his employees the youth had drowned after Hattula's body was recovered from the Pecatonica River. Des Plaines authorities had contacted colleagues in Freeport during their investigation into Gacy, but were told the youth had fallen to his death from a bridge. At the time of Hattula's death, Gacy had become engaged and his fiancée had moved into his home, which leaves a possibility that Gacy had disposed of Hattula's body in the Pecatonica River as opposed to burying the youth in his crawl space. However; Hattula's death had been ruled as accidental.

Gacy stated that after he had assaulted and then released Jeffrey Rignall in March 1978, he had begun to throw his murder victims into the Des Plaines River. He confessed to having disposed a total of five bodies in this manner. However, only four bodies were recovered from the river and conclusively confirmed to be victims of Gacy. Given the gap of over four months between the dates of the murders of the first and second victims known to have been disposed in the river, it is possible that this unknown victim may have been killed between June and November 1978.

As a successful contractor, Gacy is also known to have both visited numerous states across America and visited Canada during the years he is known to have killed. When asked as to whether there were more victims, Gacy simply stated: "That's for you guys to find out."

Detective Bill Dorsch has stated he has reason to believe there may be more victims buried elsewhere. In 1975, he claims that he saw a person he believes to be Gacy digging upon the property of the apartment building he then resided at within the 6100 block of West Miami Avenue in Chicago: Gacy is known to have been the caretaker of this property in 1975. When confronted by Dorsch as to his actions, Gacy stated he was performing work that he was too busy to do during the day. Another resident says she also has reason to believe there may be additional victims buried at that location, stating Gacy had dug a number of large trenches around the property where fresh plants would later be planted.

In March 2012, Cook County Sheriff's officials submitted a request to excavate the grounds of this property. However, the Cook County State's Attorney denied this request, stating a lack of probable cause as the reason the submission was denied; adding that there had been a search of the property conducted in 1998. However, the sheriff's office had noted that in 1998, a radar survey conducted had noted a total of 14 areas of interest within the property grounds, yet only 2 of these 14 anomalies had been excavated on that occasion. Moreover, Detective Dorsch, who had informed investigators of the possibility of Gacy having buried victims' bodies at West Miami Avenue, had provided police with a letter from the radar company who had conducted the 1998 search of the property which stated the initial search of the grounds was incomplete.