John Carey, 66, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of first-degree murder last month in the 1986 killing of Claire Gravel
NEED TO KNOW
- A Massachusetts man was sentenced to life in prison for the 1986 murder of Salem State University student Claire Gravel
- DNA evidence from a 2008 attempted murder case linked John Carey to 20-year-old Gravel’s strangulation death decades after the case went cold
- Gravel’s siblings described her as a “ray of sunshine” with dreams of studying law and starting a family
A Massachusetts man known as the “Hamilton Strangler,” who was convicted of killing a college student decades ago, has now been sentenced for her murder.
John Carey, 66, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of first-degree murder last month in the 1986 killing of Claire Gravel, the Essex County District Attorney’s Office announced in a press statement on Thursday, April 9.
During the trial, prosecutors described how the case breakthrough came from DNA testing, which revealed Carey’s DNA on the black tank top used to strangle Gravel on June 29, 1986, per the statement…