The Case of Russell Lloyd Nelson

Russell Lloyd Nelson, 21, disappeared from Chicago on October 17, 1977, during the most concentrated period of John Wayne Gacy's known murders. Nelson was later identified as one of Gacy's victims after investigators recovered his remains from beneath Gacy's Norwood Park Township home in December 1978.

Russell Nelson was 21 years old and lived in Chicago. He disappeared on October 17, 1977, at a time when Gacy's murders were occurring with alarming frequency. His disappearance came only 22 days after John Mowery disappeared and less than a month before Gacy would kill another young man, Robert Winch. By this stage of Gacy's offending, the pattern was becoming extraordinarily concentrated. Young men were disappearing from the Chicago area at intervals of only days or weeks, but the connection between the cases remained hidden. Nelson's disappearance would not be solved until investigators uncovered Gacy's burial site more than a year later.

Nelson was murdered by Gacy and his body was concealed beneath 8213 West Summerdale Avenue in Norwood Park Township. Gacy had been using the crawl space beneath his home as a concealed burial site for years. By late 1977, the space contained the remains of numerous victims. Nelson's remains were among those recovered when investigators excavated the property following Gacy's arrest in December 1978.

Nelson's disappearance was initially treated as a missing-person case. There was no known evidence at the time linking his disappearance to Gacy, despite the fact that several other young men had disappeared from the same general area during the preceding months. The investigation changed dramatically in December 1978 after 15-year-old Robert Piest disappeared from a Des Plaines pharmacy after speaking with Gacy. Police began investigating Gacy and obtained access to his home. Suspicious evidence led investigators to the crawl space, where they discovered human remains. The excavation continued as investigators uncovered victim after victim. The remains were compared with missing-person cases from Chicago and surrounding communities, eventually establishing Nelson's identity.

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

Russell Nelson was Gacy's nineteenth identified victim in the chronological sequence. His murder occurred during the exceptionally concentrated autumn 1977 period of Gacy's offending. The sequence is becoming particularly striking at this point: Gilroy in September, Mowery later that month, Nelson in October, followed by multiple victims in November and December. This period demonstrates how rapidly Gacy's known murders were occurring before his eventual exposure.