Nice to see a fellow Salemite on here. I grew up in Salem, still live in the area, all the family is cloistered around here. This would have been my mum's era, she'd have been in middle school. This case actually made me join WS, and is the case my signature is describing.
Do we know if LE ever finished the DNA testing? Given the proximity to the highway, and with Salem being a border town, he very easily could have been from Methuen, Haverhill, or even further out into MA. But they never mention whether he was found next to the Southbound side or the Northbound side---has anyone ever entertained the possibility he could be from further north, or more likely, further south? The description on the Doe Network was that he was wearing a shirt with "Bradlees Superstore" on it; some google searching turned up a blog post about the store and the Wikipedia article on Stop and Shop. Seems they purchased the chain in 61' and sold it in 92'. It went bankrupt in 1995 and was completely gone by 01'. Bradlees originated in CT.
The blog posting mentions that although it was bought out, S&S didn't open any Bradlees outside of CT till the 70's. With that in mind, the victim may have been from the CT area, either in the state, or in southern MA or RI (since it's not unheard of to get a job in a neighboring state if it's close enough). It's possible it could have just been a t-shirt, but I'm thinking they meant they found him in a shirt with the logo on it, like an employee of the chain would wear. Bradlees is gone now, but it's a tidbit to go on, especially if there are family accounts of a relative working there. Even if it was just a shirt, he'd have to have bought it at one of the locations in CT.
Using this info, if the victim WAS from CT, the killer would have had to connect to 93 from a different highway, since 93 runs diagonally from the lower Boston area up to northern VT. 93 connects to 95, which runs up and down the entire east coast. On the northern side, it connects to 91, which runs from New Haven, CT all the way up through the Canadian border.
The blog had a Bradlees store locator, and even a list of Bradlees in CT with dates of opening and closing. If someone had excess time (hell, I might tomorrow night after I'm off-shift), it's possible to create a database of open Bradlees in the CT area from 1969 and before, and cross-reference it with missing males reported from CT around that time. I doubt there are many missing cases, though, there never are from that time period.
If he wasn't from the area, and moved there from elsewhere, it's also possible (but less likely) that he may have come from the north. My grandparents immigrated to the US from Canada in the early 50's, and moved to Salem a few years after. There was a small-medium Canadian community in the general region, to my knowledge, at least based off the amount of friends my grandparents have/had in the area from Canada. :0
He's buried in the same cemetery as my family. I actually passed by it today on the way home. It's really eerie to think about, and extremely sad. :[
http://thecaldorrainbow.blogspot.com/2007/02/retail-profile-bradlees.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_&_Shop
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradlees
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_91
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_93
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_95_in_Massachusetts
