Timothy McCoy | |
|---|---|
 Timothy McCoy, December 1971 | |
| Born | Timothy Jack McCoy May 14, 1955 Council Bluffs, Iowa, U.S. |
| Disappeared | January 2, 1972 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | January 3, 1972 (aged 16) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Multiple stab wounds to the chest |
| Body discovered | December 26, 1978 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Resting place | Westlawn-Hillcrest Funeral Home and Memorial Park, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. 41°08′26″N 95°35′44″W / 41.1406°N 95.5956°W (approximate) |
| Other names | Body 9 Case #1279 Dec. 78 The Greyhound Bus Boy |
| Known for | Victim of serial murder |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) (approximate) |
Timothy Jack McCoy (May 14, 1955 – January 3, 1972) was an American murder victim from Omaha, Nebraska.[1] He is the first known victim of serial killer and sex offender John Wayne Gacy, who raped, tortured and murdered at least 33 young men and boys in Norwood Park Township, near Chicago, Illinois, between 1972 and 1978.[2]
McCoy encountered Gacy at Chicago's Greyhound bus terminal in the early hours of January 3, 1972, while the teenager waited for a connecting bus to his father's home in Nebraska due the following noon; he was lured to Gacy's home and subsequently stabbed to death. His body was later buried in the crawl space beneath the property, and was only recovered following Gacy's December 1978 arrest, although his body remained unidentified until May 1986.[3]
Following his 1986 identification, McCoy's remains were returned to his family; his body was interred alongside his father within Westlawn-Hillcrest Funeral Home and Memorial Park in his home state of Nebraska.[4][5]
Prior to his identification, McCoy was informally known as the Greyhound Bus Boy and officially as both Body 9 and Case #1279 Dec. 78. His informal moniker was a reference to the Chicago Greyhound bus terminal where he first encountered Gacy and how his murderer largely chose to refer to him; his formal monikers refer to his sequential recovery order from beneath Gacy's crawl space and his assigned medical examiner reference number.[6]
- ^ Gallagher, Michael (May 13, 1986). "Identified: Area Visitor was First Gacy Victim". Lansing State Journal. p. 1.
- ^ Whittington-Egan 1992, p. 70.
- ^ Locin, Mitchell (May 10, 1986). "Gacy's 1st Victim Finally Identified". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on March 3, 2020.
- ^ Herrmann, Andrew (May 20, 1986). "Gacy Victim's Remains Going Home to Iowa". Chicago Sun-Times. p. 36. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021.
- ^ Nelson 2021, pp. 275–276.
- ^ Berry-Dee 2009, p. 193.
