LAWRENCE, Mass. — Nearly four decades after the brutal murder of Salem State College student Claire Gravel, her killer learned his fate on Thursday morning.
A Lawrence Superior Court judge sentenced John Carey, 66, to a life sentence without the possibility of parole in the supermax Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster.
Watch the sentencing hearing:
Carey was convicted of first‑degree murder in Gravel’s 1986 killing on March 3.
“The family of Claire Gravel has waited 40 long years for justice,” Essex District Attorney Paul F. Tucker said. “The prosecutors, together with our partners in law enforcement, never gave up on Claire’s case.”
The case remained cold for almost 40 years before a critical break led to Carey’s arrest and conviction. Prosecutors say DNA evidence recovered from a tank top used to strangle Gravel ultimately tied Carey to the crime.
Gravel, a 20-year-old North Andover native who worked at National Braille Press, was attending Salem State when her body was discovered on the side of Route 128 in Beverly on June 29, 1986. She was found strangled to death.
The night before she was found, Gravel allegedly played softball in Salem and later celebrated at Major Magleashes bar on Washington Street with friends.
A Massachusetts State Police investigator told Boston 25 at the time that she left the bar around 1 a.m. However, a man told investigators he had given Claire a ride to her apartment. No one saw her arrive home that night, and the account was never verified.
Other witnesses told investigators that a woman matching Claire’s description was seen outside Major Magleashes after it closed, arguing with a man before getting into a car.
Investigators with the Essex County District Attorney’s Office spent years revisiting evidence and pursuing leads in the decades‑old case, leading to the recent breakthrough.
When Carey was charged with Gravel’s murder, he was already serving a 20-year sentence for the attempted murder by strangulation and house invasion for an unrelated case.
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