Francis Wayne Alexander, a 21-year-old Caucasian male, came to Chicago after time in North Carolina and New York. Records show a final traffic ticket in early January 1976; he later vanished in late 1976 or early 1977 after drifting through neighborhoods linked to contractor John Wayne Gacy. Skeletal remains recovered from the cramped crawl space beneath Gacy’s Norwood Park house on December 26, 1978 were cataloged as Victim 5 and included a light-colored long-sleeved shirt or jacket, dark trousers, socks, and a leather belt.

Based on burial arrangement between two other identified victims, investigators placed the likely death window between December 1976 and March 15, 1977, matching when the 21–22-year-old went silent. A molar later yielded DNA for whole-genome sequencing; genealogy leads and family reference samples from his mother and half-brother confirmed the identification. Authorities attributed Alexander’s death to John Wayne Gacy, who was arrested in December 1978 and later convicted of multiple murders; Alexander was identified publicly on October 25, 2021.

Does anyone have memories of Alexander from Chicago in 1976–77 or information that could add to his timeline?