Solved Unrelated 1978 Missing Man Case
Saramarie0622
Published
04/26/2014
April 23, 2014 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Four decades after John Wayne Gacy lured more than 30 young men and boys to his Chicago-area home and strangled them, his case has helped authorities solve another killing - one he didn't commit.
Twenty-two year old Edward Beaudion was driving his sister's car home from a wedding on July 23, 1978 when he encountered a Missouri man who later confessed to killing him. But because no body was found, the alleged killer Jerry Jackson - was charged with car theft and served four years in jail.
Thirty years later, in April of 2008, Patricia Bitterman's son stumbled upon human bones in Lemont's Black Partridge Woods - the same general area where Jackson had taken police years before. With little more than shreds of clothing and no indication of a cause of death, the investigation went nowhere. The bones, one of which had an orthopedic screw in it, were taken to the county medical examiner's office.
"He said he just picked up the shoe and said 'Oh my gosh, there are bones attached to this,' but there wasn't too much more," Bitterman said.Three years later, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart's office exhumed eight of Gacy's unidentified victims from the 1970's to test DNA. Dart asked that relatives of young men who disappeared during this era submit DNA samples for comparison.
Beaudion's sister, Ruth Rodriguez, called.
"I didn't think Gacy killed him but we figured we'd go ahead and try," she said.
Tests ruled out Gacy, and investigators said Jackson was the likely killer. Jackson died last year at the age of 62.
"My mom went to her grave in 2001 not knowing where my brother was," Rodriguez said. "And she always felt - and I did too - that one day he would come home."
Rodriguez and her father said they're disappointed Jackson died before he could be brought to justice.
"I still want to ask Jerry Jackson why, if you even thought for a moment my brother was still alive, you brought him all the way out there and dumped him like garbage," Rodriguez said.
Cook County Detective Jason Moran, a leading investigator on this and the Burr Oak cases, said his team is chasing down 30 other leads on missing persons from the Gacy era.
"My dad, he will now be able to know where my brother was," Rodriguez said. "When he dies, we are going to take my brother's remains and have them cremated and buried with my dad so they can be next to my mom," Rodriguez said.
Twenty-two year old Edward Beaudion was driving his sister's car home from a wedding on July 23, 1978 when he encountered a Missouri man who later confessed to killing him. But because no body was found, the alleged killer Jerry Jackson - was charged with car theft and served four years in jail.
Thirty years later, in April of 2008, Patricia Bitterman's son stumbled upon human bones in Lemont's Black Partridge Woods - the same general area where Jackson had taken police years before. With little more than shreds of clothing and no indication of a cause of death, the investigation went nowhere. The bones, one of which had an orthopedic screw in it, were taken to the county medical examiner's office.
"He said he just picked up the shoe and said 'Oh my gosh, there are bones attached to this,' but there wasn't too much more," Bitterman said.Three years later, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart's office exhumed eight of Gacy's unidentified victims from the 1970's to test DNA. Dart asked that relatives of young men who disappeared during this era submit DNA samples for comparison.
Beaudion's sister, Ruth Rodriguez, called.
"I didn't think Gacy killed him but we figured we'd go ahead and try," she said.
Tests ruled out Gacy, and investigators said Jackson was the likely killer. Jackson died last year at the age of 62.
"My mom went to her grave in 2001 not knowing where my brother was," Rodriguez said. "And she always felt - and I did too - that one day he would come home."
Rodriguez and her father said they're disappointed Jackson died before he could be brought to justice.
"I still want to ask Jerry Jackson why, if you even thought for a moment my brother was still alive, you brought him all the way out there and dumped him like garbage," Rodriguez said.
Cook County Detective Jason Moran, a leading investigator on this and the Burr Oak cases, said his team is chasing down 30 other leads on missing persons from the Gacy era.
"My dad, he will now be able to know where my brother was," Rodriguez said. "When he dies, we are going to take my brother's remains and have them cremated and buried with my dad so they can be next to my mom," Rodriguez said.
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