LAWRENCE, Mass. In Essex County Superior Court in Lawrence, John Carey, 66, of Braintree was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder of Claire Gravel on June 29, 1986, the Office of Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker confirms.
A jury convicted Carey after a trial in which Deputy First Assistant District Attorney Kim Faitella explained how the break in the case came via DNA testing that yielded samples of Carey’s DNA on the black tank top shirt used to strangle Gravel to death nearly four decades ago. Her body was found on the side of Route 128 in Beverly.
“The family of Claire Gravel has waited 40 long years for justice,” said Tucker, who highlighted the work of Faitella and former Massachusetts State Police Det. Lt. Elaine Gill, now deputy chief of police at Merrimack College. “The prosecutors here today, together with our partners in law enforcement, never gave up on Claire’s case.”…