Gacy 'Victim' Found Alive: Robert Hutton Turns Up in Montana

A presumed John Wayne Gacy victim was found living in Montana earlier this year after he was believed to have been killed by the Chicago-area serial killer some 41 years earlier.

Robert Hutton was found in April. Hutton, 21 at the time, last made contact with his family in 1972 while hitch hiking from New York City to Los Angeles. He was likely passing through the Chicago area at the time and disappeared when Gacy began his killing spree, leading his family to believe Hutton was a victim, the Associated Press reported.

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Hutton's discovery came after his sister submitted his name as a possible Gacy victim several years ago, according to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. Investigators were collecting DNA samples in 2011 from the remains of eight unnamed victims in an effort to identify them.

Gacy, a building contractor, was convicted of luring 33 young men and boys to his Chicago-area home — sometimes by hiring them for construction work — and strangling them between 1972 and 1978. Many of the victims were also sexually assaulted in the process, with most buried in a crawl space under his home. The bodies of four victims were dumped in a river, the AP noted.

In addition to being a contractor, Gacy was an amateur clown who dressed up and performed for children as "Pogo the Clown," earning him the moniker "the killer clown."

Serial killer John Wayne Gacy, murderer of dozens of boys, liked to dress up as a clown for kids' birthday parties. pic.twitter.com/vFMmLX3LvD

— Horrifying Pictures (@HorifyingPics) October 10, 2013

In March 1980, Gacy was sentenced to death for 12 of the killings. He subsequently spent 14 years on death row. In May 1994 he was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Ill.

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According to Dart's office, investigators were able to successfully trace Hutton to rural Montana. It was not reported why he had not made contact with his family for more than four decades. However, since his discovery, Hutton has already visited his father and plans to visit his sister.

Since the Gacy investigation was reopened, one additional victim has been identified and seven missing persons cases have been closed; five were found alive and two had died of natural causes, the AP noted.