Body of alleged Boston Strangler to be exhumed for DNA confirmation

US authorities have said the body of a dead convict suspected to have killed a woman nearly 50 years ago will be exhumed to conduct forensic tests to determine whether he was the notorious Boston Strangler.

The remains of Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to the Boston Strangler murders, will be exhumed and compared to DNA from the body of Mary Sullivan.

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley announced that DNA taken from the body of the final strangler victim, Sullivan, and a water bottle used by DeSalvo's nephew showed a familial match.

According to the New York Daily News, the exhumation in Peabody, Massachusetts this week will allow investigators to confirm the results, which Conley said already matched 99.9 percent.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said the development means that they have solved one the most notorious cases in Boston's history.

The Boston Strangler allegedly killed 11 women between the ages of 19 and 85 between 1962 and 1964. Most of the victims were strangled and sexually assaulted in their apartments.

According to the report, DeSalvo, a blue collar worker and Army veteran, confessed to the crimes while serving time for separate crimes, but he was never prosecuted.

Instead, he was sentenced to life in prison for a series of armed robberies and sexual assaults and was stabbed to death behind bars in 1973, the report added.