The Case of Jon Steven Prestidge

Jon Steven Prestidge, 20, disappeared in March 1977 after leaving his home in Chicago. He was later identified as one of John Wayne Gacy's victims after investigators recovered his remains from the crawl space beneath Gacy's Norwood Park Township home in December 1978. His identification helped investigators connect another missing young man to Gacy's growing list of victims.

Jon Steven Prestidge was 20 years old and lived in the Chicago area. He disappeared on March 15, 1977, during a period when Gacy's murders were becoming increasingly frequent. By this point, several young men had disappeared after coming into contact with Gacy, although the full pattern remained hidden from investigators. Prestidge's disappearance occurred only two months after the disappearance of John Alan Szyc, whose car had provided police with an unusual connection to Gacy. Despite these warning signs, Gacy remained free and continued operating his construction business and socialising in the community.

Prestidge was murdered by Gacy and his body was concealed beneath 8213 West Summerdale Avenue in Norwood Park Township. Gacy used the crawl space beneath his home as a burial site for many of his victims. When investigators eventually excavated the property following Gacy's arrest in December 1978, Prestidge's remains were among those recovered. The discovery of multiple bodies beneath the house established that the property had been used repeatedly to conceal victims over several years.

Prestidge's disappearance was initially investigated as a missing-person case. His family had no reason to suspect that he had become the victim of a serial killer, and Gacy's connection to numerous missing young men had not yet been established. The case remained unresolved until the investigation into the disappearance of 15-year-old Robert Piest in December 1978 led police to Gacy. Once investigators searched Gacy's home and discovered human remains, they began comparing the unidentified bodies with missing-person reports from Chicago and surrounding communities. Prestidge was subsequently identified among the recovered remains through forensic investigation.

John Wayne Gacy was convicted of Jon Steven Prestidge's murder in 1980, along with 32 other murders, and sentenced to death. Prestidge's remains were recovered from Gacy's home during the 1978 excavation and subsequently identified. Gacy was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994.

Jon Steven Prestidge was Gacy's fifteenth identified victim in the chronological sequence. His murder occurred less than two months after John Szyc's disappearance and during the period when Gacy's killing rate was beginning to increase substantially. Unlike Szyc's case, there was no known surviving physical clue linking Prestidge to Gacy before the 1978 investigation uncovered the bodies beneath the house.