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Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 172

Publication:
Chicago Tribunei
Location:
Chicago, Illinois
Issue Date:
Page:
172
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

it This guy's not going to get away, is she asked. I I continued front jmov 2T This was David Cram, 20, another employe of Gacy's and one of the many unusual individuals associated with the case. Cram later provided key evidence. Toward the end, the police opened Gacy's front closet and took everything out, including Gacy's golf clubs. In the floor of the closet the police saw the trap door to the crawl space.

"In my mind, I thought maybe the kid was down there with a gag on." said Kozenczak. The Cook County evidence technician, Carl Humbert, went down with a powerful, portable lamp. Kozenczak didn't go down; he had a suit on. The mild odor coming up through the trap door reminded Kozenczak of the potato cellar on his grandfather's farm in Wisconsin. "It smelted of dampness." But the earth under the house was dry and powdery.

To the eye, the crawl space was empty. Kozenczak poked his head through the hole and asked. "Is there anything that looks like freshly dug dirt?" "No, it's all intact," Humbert replied. was admitting to myself that maybe the kid was dead." Kozenczak said later.) After 10 minutes, Humbert came up and said. "There's nothing down there." "We closed the trap door.

1 put the golf clubs and all the other things back," said Kozenczak. Along with all the items seized in the house, the police returned to Des Plaines with Gacy's car, van, and pickup truck to be searched through later. But they had not found what Kozenczak hoped for. Piest's clothe, or wallet, or Piest. "The trip back vas really a bummer," said Kozenczak.

"I was really down." In the station. Investigator Greg Bedee of the state's attorney's office askeu him what he had. "It doesn't look like a whole lot," Kozenczak responded. Later he told Terry Sullivan it was a "negative search." 1 "is. 3k.

1 1 Ko kozenczak directed the initial bagging and sealing of evidence. then went to see Gacy in the station. Gacy's attorney asked, "Is he under arrest?" "No," Kozenczak answered. "Well, we'd like to go." Gacy was released at about 11 p.m. Dec.

13, just short of 48 hours from the time that Mrs. Piest had reported Robert missing. Kozenczak went home at 2 a.m. His wife, as was often the case when he worked late, was awake. He told her what had happened.

Although there was still no proof that a crime had occurred, Mrs. Kozenczak, based on her husband's account, also believed Gacy had done something with the Piest boy. She asked, "This guy's not going to get away, is he?" "I don't know," Kozenczak responded. "I hope not." there's comfort to spare -Haggar Magic Stretch slacks You can bowl with a better frame of mind, thanks to an exclusive two-way stretch fabric woven of Today's Dacron polyester from Klopman, plus Haggar's Expando-matic waistband, for total ease-of-movement. And it's machine washable too! In tan, brown, navy, heather gray or heather brown; waists 32-42, S.M.L inseams, 24.00.

Men's casual pants, second floor, Wabash; suburbs except Winnetka. I I he next day. Dec. 14, Des Plaines police put Gacy under 24-hour surveillance in the effort to locate Piest. Gacy never killed again.

He never had the chance. On Dec. IS. the high school ring found in Gacy's house was linked to John Szyc. a youth who had been missing almost two years.

On the same day, Rossi told police that two of Gacy's former employes had disappeared. On Dec. 17, Lt. Kozenczak took a chance and consulted a psychic. He handed her Robert Piest's camera.

"This boy is dead," the psychic said, holding the camera. Rossi and Cram told police they had dug trenches in Gacy's crawl space. On Dec. 19, the red slip of paper from Gacy's wastebasket, a receipt for photo processing, was positively linked to Robert Piest, thus linking Piest to Gacy's house. Also on the 19th, Gacy invited the two officers watching him to step into his house for breakfast.

Gacy had unplugged his sump pump, and his crawl space had flooded, disturbing the ground. The officers smelted the odor of death. On Dec. 22, sheriff's police and Des Plaines police executed a second search warrant on Gacy's property and began to dig up bodies in the crawl space. Twenty-nine bodies were unearthed on Gacy's property, and four linked to him were found in rivers.

Robert Piest's body was found April 9, 1979, near the Dresden Dam in Grundy County. Gacy is in prison under sentence of death. mm CALL 372-6800 ANY HOUR. OR WRITE BOX AA. CHICAGO 60690.

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28 Chicago Tribune Magazine.

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