A man who was thought to have been murdered over 40 years ago by clown serial killer and rapist John Wayne Gacy was found alive in Montana, thanks to his sister refusing to give up the search.

According to Gawker, Robert Hutton went missing in 1972, and was last heard from when he left New York for California. His sister, Edyth, was 24 at the time.

Hutton never got to California, leading his family to believe that he could have encountered the infamous serial killer near Chicago.

His sister was devastated, but never stopped searching for her brother in the hope that he was still alive.

In the 1990s, Edyth went on the Internet to try to find him, and found more than 500 Robert, Rob and Bob Huttons. She mailed them postcards that ended with the message, "If this is not you, please forgive the intrusion and disregard this card."

In 2011, Jason Moran, a detective with the Cook County's Sheriff's Office who was trying to find the last eight unclaimed supposed Gacy victims, met with Edyth. She soon figured out that her brother had recently lived in Colorado, but had since moved, and no one knew where.

Moran decided to follow through with the search once he learned that Edyth's father was dying from cancer.

"I've been meeting with these families of missing persons, and ... even after 30 or 40 years - they just have this sadness about them, like, 'Where is my missing child?'" Moran told ABC.

He eventually found Hutton living in a tiny, pastoral Montana town. He called the local police and had an officer sent to Hutton's house, where he told Hutton the story over the phone. He was amazed that his family was still looking for him.

"I got a call from [Moran], and he said, 'Edyth, are you sitting down?'" Edyth told ABC. "And my heart was pounding. I said, 'Yes, I am. Do you have some info for me?' He said, 'I do.' And very quickly he said, 'I found your brother and he's alive and well.' And [it] was just like a hole that I had not known the size of in my heart was filled. ... It was fabulous news. I was crying and laughing at the same time."

Hutton said his disappearance was due to "neglect." He said that he spent years wandering though the Southwest with no fixed address, and attempted to find his family in the '90s. He then became busy trying to find work after the 2008 market crash.

"And, you know, procrastination is my middle name," he told ABC. "It just kind of happened that we got out of touch, and then when we tried to get in touch we had no contact [information]."

Hutton and his father have been reunited, but he and Edyth have yet to see each other. They say Hutton's work hours and financial problems are delaying their meeting.

However, they apparently speak every week, according to ABC.

"We will see each other as soon as we can. We know that," Edyth said.

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