‘Extreme atrocity and cruelty’: Mass. man found guilty of strangling college student 40 years ago
04/09/2026 4:30 pm PDT
LAWRENCE, Mass. (TCN) -- A man already serving time for attempted murder has been convicted by a jury of first-degree murder for strangling a college student in 1986.
The body of 20-year-old Claire Gravel was found in a forest near a highway after she was killed in June 1986, WHDH reports. The case went unsolved for decades. According to the Essex County district attorney, they received a lead in 2012 that connected her killing to a man who was already incarcerated for attempted murder.
According to a press release from the DA, Deputy First Assistant District Attorney Kim Faitella said testing yielded samples of the suspect’s DNA on the murder weapon — a black tank top used to strangle Gravel. John Carey, now 66, was indicted on a first-degree murder charge in 2022, Boston.com reported at the time.
Carey was convicted of attempted murder for strangling a woman in 2007, according to WHDH, and was already serving a 20-year sentence. He was found guilty first-degree murder in March for killing Gravel and was sentenced April 9 to life in prison. Boston.com reports that in their verdict, the jury noted Gravel’s strangulation death as “extreme atrocity and cruelty.”
At sentencing, Gravel’s family members gave impact statements, WHDH reports. Denise Foley, her sister, said, “I have been waiting 39 years and nine months and nine days for today.” Her brother, Mark Gravel, said, “They say the key to happiness is forgiveness; there is no forgiveness. The key to happiness is justice and so it has prevailed.”
According to the DA, Gravel is remembered by her family as fun, feisty, and friendly.
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