HBO series looks at lives disrupted by serial killer caught after 30 years

NEW YORK — It’s said that documentary filmmaking is all about being in the right place at the right time. If so, director Liz Garbus has been doubly lucky with her latest project.

Two years ago, she and her team started filming their series on the hunt for the still-unknown Golden State Killer, whose trail had been cold for more than 30 years. The very next day, a suspect was arrested.

“If you’re making a documentary and everything happens as expected, isn’t that boring?” she asks, laughing. “Why are you bothering?”

Garbus kept filming and the result is ” I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” a six-part documentary series debuting Sunday on HBO. It also premieres with perfect timing.

In a twist that seems almost too well scripted, the day after the first episode airs, the Golden State Killer suspect is expected to plead guilty in a California courtroom.

The filmmakers were able to pivot in large part because “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” is not really about the killer himself but rather the survivors of his terror. It’s framed through the life of the late crime writer Michelle McNamara.

“It’s very weird timing, but that’s the way things go sometimes. It just happens,” said comedian Patton Oswalt, who was married to McNamara.

The Golden State Killer is suspected of at least 13 murders and more than 50 rapes across California from 1974-1986. The armed and masked rapist would tie up any man he found in the house and pile dishes on his back, threatening to kill both victims if he heard the plates jiggle while he assaulted the woman.

DNA evidence in 2018 led authorities to arrest Joseph DeAngelo, a former police officer. While McNamara’s work didn’t directly lead police to the arrest, she and her fellow civilian online sleuths kept pushing the case.