LAWRENCE, MASS. (WHDH) - Decades after the crime, a man is now facing charges and on trial for the murder of a Salem State University student in 1986.
During opening statements in John Carey’s trial, the prosecutor told jurors that Salem State University student Claire Gravel was found dead in the woods off Route 128 in Beverly in the summer of 1986. Police said she was strangled with her own tank top.
“John Carey murdered Claire Gravel on June 29, 1986 motivated by his sexual arousal to the act of strangulation,” said Kim Faitella, Prosecutor. “On the tank top, in the exact area that was twisted and pulled over Claire’s head and used as murder weapon, the only male’s DNA on that was the defendant, John Carey.”
Gravel’s brother and the man who found her body were called to the witness stand following opening statements.
Prosecutors say it took years for DNA technology to link Carey to the crime. His sample was put into the system after he was convicted of choking and nearly killing Rosemary Diskin in her Hamilton home in 2007.
Diskin spoke exclusively with 7NEWS in 2022 about how her case helped crack this one.
“For the family now, they know what happened to their daughter,” said Diskin in August 2022. “That was my big thing like, ‘why me? why me?’ And now they know.”
Carey’s defense attorney said the prosecution has the wrong man, and claims Beverly police did not investigate all of the possible suspects.
“In 1986 there was nothing about this case that was cold at all. The case was red hot in 1986. The evidence will show police threw water on the blazing trail,” said Mark Booker, Carey’s Defense Attorney. “This investigation was absolutely corrupted by bias and that evidence is going to show Mr. Carey is not guilty.”
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