He Walked Free for 40 Years. Then His Own DNA Caught Him. | The Salem State Cold Case

In June 1986, 20-year-old Salem State College student Claire Gravel was strangled with her own tank top and left along Route 128 in Beverly, Massachusetts. Police quickly named a person of interest — a man who’d once attended Salem State himself — but in 1986 there was no DNA database, no way to turn suspicion into proof. The case went cold.

It stayed cold for over twenty years, until an entirely unrelated crime put the same man’s DNA into CODIS, the national DNA database, following a 2008 conviction for an attempted murder in Hamilton, Massachusetts. When the comparison ran, the profile from Claire’s tank top matched exactly.

John Carey was indicted in August 2022. At trial in early 2026, Deputy First Assistant District Attorney Kim Faitella built the case around what she called his “genetic blueprint on the murder weapon.” On March 3, 2026, a jury convicted Carey of first-degree murder, finding it was committed with extreme atrocity and cruelty. On April 9, 2026, a judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Claire’s family spoke in court about who she was, forty years after they lost her. Carey has filed an appeal.

The full story — the original 1986 investigation, how CODIS actually works and why a “no match” in one decade doesn’t mean the evidence is worthless, the unrelated 2007 attack that put Carey’s DNA on file, and the sentencing hearing itself — is in the video below.

Sources

Essex County District Attorney’s Office press releases (March 3 and April 9, 2026); CBS Boston/WBZ-TV, “Salem State student’s 1986 murder mystery ends with life in prison for killer,” April 9, 2026; ABC News, “How police solved a Massachusetts student’s 1986 murder”; Boston.com, “Salem State student’s killer convicted 40 years after her murder,” March 3, 2026, and “Braintree man sentenced to life in prison for murdering Salem State student 40 years ago,” April 9, 2026; WBUR, “Authorities find suspect in 1986 death of Salem State student Claire Gravel,” August 25, 2022.

Related reading

No well-reviewed book has been written about this case specifically. For readers who want more on cold case DNA and CODIS: cold case DNA / CODIS true crime books. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.