‘Candy Man’ serial killer Dean Corll’s last unidentified young victim could finally be named, as fresh pictures of ‘Swimsuit Boy’ are released 50 years after he was murdered

Investigators have released new footage in an effort to identify the last unknown victim of infamous “Candy Man” serial killer Dean Corll, who slaughtered at least 28 teens and young men between 1970 and 1973.

The victim, dubbed “Swimsuit Boy,” was believed to have been between the ages of 15 and 18 when he was raped, murdered, and dumped in a mass grave along with 15 others at Corll’s rented boat shed in South-West Houston.

Seven other victims have been identified in the past 12 years, and scientists hope a new rendering of the face, along with sanitized images of the boots, shirt and shorts he wore, will close the gruesome case.

“This young man’s friends and classmates are believed to be in their late 60s to early 70s, and we hope these new images reach them and help them find the one clue needed to solve this case,” said Carol Schweitzer of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) said in a statement.

Corll was working as an electrician when he began his murderous assault and got his nickname from the free candies he would give to children.

Cleaned-up images of the boy’s signature 1970s clothing were able to refresh memories

He befriended teenagers David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley and paid them $200 a time to lure local boys to his yard or his homes around Pasadena, with the promise of parties or car rides.

Once in his hands, they were raped and beaten on a homemade “torture board” before being strangled or shot with a .22 caliber pistol.

Most showed signs of sexual torture: their pubic hair had been plucked out, their genitals were often chewed, and glass rods were often inserted into their urethra and shattered.

The murderous rampage came to an end when 33-year-old Corll was shot dead with his own gun in August 1973 by Henley, who feared he would become one of the killer’s next victims.

The accomplice reportedly yelled ‘I can’t go on any longer! I can’t let you kill all my friends!”, before pulling the trigger and calling the police.

Henley led police to the rented boat shed on Silver Bell Street in southwest Houston, where they would find 16 bodies over the course of three days, wrapped in sheets and buried in lime.

Other bodies were found at Lake Sam Rayburn and High Island Beach.

Dr. Sharon Derrick, who helped identify seven other victims, told the Houston Chronicle that the unidentified boy had “nice teeth.”

Dean Corll (pictured) — known as the “Candy Man” — murdered eight of his 28-plus teen victims at his last home in Lamar Drive, Pasadena.

“When I got to the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office, one of the things I was charged with was going through all the stored remains to see if anything could be done about it,” she explained.

“I found three boxes labeled Houston Mass Murders.

“There was more than one individual in each box, and of all the individuals in the boxes, there was only one that we couldn’t identify.”

Dr. Derrick previously suggested that the victim could be named Robert, or Bobby, French, after receiving an anonymous package containing a series of photos that may have been taken shortly before his murder.

The mystery boy was white or possibly Hispanic, had long brown hair and was between five and five feet tall.

He was found wearing a striped Catalina bathing suit, 12-inch cowboy boots, dark blue corduroy jeans, and a 1970s-style beige shirt with a peace sign on the back.

“We want to make sure we’re creating an image that the audience isn’t going to be fixated on because there’s dirt or blood on the shirt,” Colin McNally of NCMEC’s ​​forensic imaging unit told me. ABC 13.

The state of his remains suggested he was one of Corll’s previous victims from 1971 or 1972 and may have suffered from mild spina bifida.

Henley, now 68, was jailed after being implicated in six of the murders, but will be eligible for parole in October 2025.

Corll’s family owned a candy store, but the killer was working as an electrician at the time of the murders

Pictured, San Augustine County deputies have been found next to a “torture board” — where Corll would restrain his victims — in another home Corll lived in in Broaddus, Texas, similar to the one he kept in 2020 Lamar’s bedroom Drive, along with other torture implements

A handcuffed Elmer Henley (left, center) being escorted to court by police officers in August 1973, days after he shot and killed Corll. Right, a search of the yard where Corll murdered some of his victims

The house in Pasadena where Corll eventually met his own death

Brooks was also jailed and died in prison in 2020.

Corll’s last home, where he murdered eight teenagers, was bought by the Pasadena Economic Development Corp last December and demolished in February.

“I feel for a lot of families, the lingering pain would still be there if there was that place, so many memories,” a neighbor told ABC 13.

“Just knowing I’m on the same street, I tell people, and that’s the first thing people bring up, ‘That’s the Candy Man’s house,'” she added.