Ex-cop arrested in Golden State Killer case
Suspect is identified decades after dozens of rapes, burglaries
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After nearly four decades, an arrest has been made in the case of the so-called Golden State Killer, a serial killer and rapist who terrorized communities in California in the 1970s and ’80s, authorities confirmed Wednesday.
Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested without incident on a warrant from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday, said Scott Jones, the sheriff of Sacramento County. He was booked early Wednesday on two counts of murder, according to Sacramento County jail records.
The arrest represented the first steps toward closure that had eluded dozens of victims for decades. Anne Marie Schubert, Sacramento’s district attorney, said at an afternoon news conference that DeAngelo hadn’t emerged as a suspect until last week, when an abandoned DNA sample was collected.
“The answer has always been in Sacramento,” she said.
The Golden State Killer, also known as the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker, is thought to have killed at least 12 people, raped at least 45 people and burglarized more than 120 homes in multiple communities between 1976 and 1986. His victims included women home alone, women at home with their children, and husbands and wives from Sacramento to Orange County, authorities said.
Bruce Harrington, whose brother and sister-in-law were among the homicide victims, joined law enforcement officers at an afternoon news conference. He said it was “time for the victims to begin to heal, so long overdue,” he said.
“Sleep better tonight. He isn’t coming in through the window,” he said. “He’s now in jail, and he’s history.”
One victim, Jane Carson-Sandler, who was raped in 1976, said Wednesday that she was overwhelmed with emotion.
Carson-Sandler, 72, said she had always believed that her rapist was alive and that he would be caught. The hatred and anger she felt eventually faded, but she continued to pray for two things each night: that he would be identified and that she wouldn’t dream about the rape.
She never did dream about it, she said, and on Wednesday morning she turned on her phone to learn that a suspect had been arrested.
“I just feel so blessed that God has finally answered all of our prayers, that this monster would eventually be put behind bars,” she said.
DeAngelo was twice employed as a police officer in California: in Exeter from 1973 to 1976 and in Auburn from 1976 to 1979, according to Jones.
An investigation into the identity of the killer was documented in a book called “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” written by Michelle McNamara, who died in April 2016. The book was completed after her death by a journalist and researcher recruited by her husband, comedian Patton Oswalt, and published in February.
Oswalt spoke about the reported capture Wednesday in a video posted on Instagram. “I think you got him, Michelle,” he said.