Ex-cop IDed as “Golden State Killer,” officials say

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A former police officer is suspected of being an elusive serial killer who police say committed at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across California in the 1970s and 1980s, officials announced Wednesday.  72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested Tuesday, Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones announced.

Sacramento County jail records show DeAngelo was arrested overnight. The FBI says it has a team gathering evidence at a Sacramento- area home linked to DeAngelo, who was fired from the Auburn Police Department.

Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said the case forever altered a time of innocence in the community. 

“For anyone that lived here in this community in Sacramento, the memories are very vivid,” Schubert said.  “You can ask everyone who grew up here — everyone has a story.”

In the last six days, DNA analysts at the crime lab offered up a break in the case, and a warrant was issued for two 1978 murders in Sacramento County, Schubert said.  She said the “answer was always going to be in the DNA,” and the connection came in the slayings of Brian and Katie Maggiore.

“We all knew as part of this team that we were looking for a needle in a haystack, but we also all knew that the needle was there,”  Schubert said. “…We found the needle in the haystack, and it was right here in Sacramento.”

FBI

Jones said officials conducted surveillance on DeAngelo and used a discarded item to make the DNA match to the string of crimes. He said officials got information about his routine and developed a plan to wait for him to come out of his residence, and when he came outside, a team took him into custody.

“He was very surprised by that,” Jones.

Alameda County District attorney Nancy O’Malley said officials have linked the rapes, murders and robberies to DeAngelo either through DNA or through modus operandi. Ventura County District Attorney Gregory Totten said he also charged DeAngelo with two counts of murder in a 1980 case. Totten says prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the former police officer.

Totten said the murders “literally struck terror” in the hearts of residents.

“We will, God willing, hold this man fully accountable for his crimes,” he said.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckus said DeAngelo is accused in his county of murders in 1980, 1981 and 1986.

“Finally after all these years, the haunting question of who committed these terrible crimes has been put to rest,” Rackauckus said.

Bruce Harrington, the brother of murder victims Keith and Patrice Harrington, who were beaten to death in their Dana Point home in 1980, applauded law enforcement for their commitment to solving the “staggering” crime spree.

“Sleep better tonight, he isn’t coming through the window,” Harrington said. “He’s in jail, and he’s history.”

Jane Carson-Sandler, who was sexually assaulted in California in 1976 by a man believed to be the so-called “East Area Rapist,” said she received an email Wednesday from a retired detective who worked on the case telling her they have identified the rapist and he’s in custody. 

“I have just been overjoyed, ecstatic. It’s an emotional roller-coaster right now,” Carson-Sandler, who now lives near Hilton Head, South Carolina, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “I feel like I’m in the middle of a dream and I’m going to wake up and it’s not going to be true. It’s just so nice to have closure and to know he’s in jail.”

FBI and California officials in 2016 renewed their search for the attacker and announced a $50,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. He’s linked to more than 175 crimes in all between 1976 and 1986.

“48 Hours” investigated the case in the episode, “The Golden State Killer. The late true crime writer Michelle McNamara, the wife of comic Patton Oswalt, was on the hunt for the killer and writing a book on the case at the time she died on April 21, 2016. The broadcast featured Oswalt’s first in-depth television interview about his wife’s reporting on the case. 

15 Photos

In search of the Golden State Killer

True-crime writer Michelle McNamara was determined to identify the man who has stymied investigators for over 40 years — could one of the clues …

As he committed crimes across the state, authorities called him by different names. He was dubbed the East Area Rapist after his start in Northern California, the Original Night Stalker after a series of Southern California slayings, and the Diamond Knot Killer for using an elaborate binding method on two of his victims.

Most recently called the Golden State Killer, he has been linked through DNA and other evidence to scores of crimes.

Armed with a gun, the masked attacker terrorized communities by breaking into homes while single women or couples were sleeping. He sometimes tied up the man and piled dishes on his back, then raped the woman while threatening to kill them both if the dishes tumbled.

He often took souvenirs, notably coins and jewelry, from his victims, who ranged in age from 13 to 41.

Carson-Sandle was attacked in her home in the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights. A home in that community belonging to a former police officer was being searched Wednesday by FBI investigators and police from several agencies.

Two neighbors who declined to give their names said authorities arrived at the scene before midnight. Sacramento County Jail records show the man who lives at the home was booked into the facility at 2:30 a.m. on suspicion of murder.

Sacramento County district attorney’s spokeswoman Shelly Orio declined to comment other than to say a news conference will be held Wednesday afternoon in Sacramento to make “a major announcement” about the case.

Authorities decided to publicize the case again in 2016 in advance of the 40th anniversary of his first known assault in Sacramento County.