DNA Ties Ga. Murderer to 1975 NY Slaying

A man sent to Georgia's death row for raping and strangling several elderly women in the 1970s has been linked by DNA evidence to the 1975 death of a woman in upstate New York, investigators said.

Carlton Gary's DNA matches evidence taken from the Syracuse road where 40-year-old teacher Marion Fisher's body was found raped and strangled, according to reports published Thursday in The Ledger Enquirer of Columbus and The Post-Standard of Syracuse.

Gary was convicted in 1986 of raping and strangling three of the seven women found dead in their Columbus homes in 1977 and 1978. Now 56, Gary remains on Georgia's death row. He was denied a new trial in May.

The cases came to be known in Columbus as the "stocking stranglings" because of the manner by which the women were killed.

Investigators from Syracuse traveled to the prison in Jackson, Ga., earlier this week to question Gary about the June 27, 1975, slaying, Syracuse Police Lt. Ron Rockwood said.

No charges have been filed against Gary in the Syracuse case, Rockwood said. The Onondaga County District Attorney's Office will decide about charges after further tests, he said.

Rockwood said investigators reopened the Fisher case about three years ago, and discovered the evidence still was suitable for DNA testing. The technology was not available at the time of the killing.

Gary's lawyer, John Martin of Atlanta, did not immediately return calls for comment on Thursday.