Youngest victim of rapist speaks out
WALNUT CREEK >> Mary was sitting in her kitchen Wednesday morning, sewing a quilt for her nephew’s unborn daughter, when the television show she was half listening to broke away for a special report: “Suspected ‘East Area Rapist’ arrested.”
“I had to stop what I was doing. … I was like, ‘What?!’ ” she said, her voice shaking amid a wave of mixed emotions. “It’s been 39 years of waiting. That’s an awfully long time.”
Almost four decades ago, the then-13-year-old girl
became the youngest victim of the notorious “East Area Rapist” — later also known as the “Golden State Killer” and “Original Night Stalker.” About 4 a.m. on June 25, 1979 — as Mary’s father and sister slept — a masked intruder sneaked into her Walnut Creek bedroom adorned with rainbows, unicorns and heart posters. He pulled down her new rainbow-print duvet, held a knife to her throat and whispered: “You better be good.” Then he raped her.
Mary, who entered eighth grade that fall, had no idea what he meant. But she allegedly became the 47th victim of Joseph James DeAngelo, now 72, a former cop who is suspected of raping at least 45 women and killing a dozen other people in a string of violence around the state dating from the 1970s to 1980s. DeAngelo was arrested in Citrus Heights on Wednesday after police linked him to the crimes through DNA evidence.
“I’m so happy. All the victims are all sharing a fabulous morning together,” Mary, who wanted to use only her first name, said in a phone interview Wednesday as she waited anxiously for a news conference about the arrest. “We never felt safe and sound in our homes all of these years.”
After hearing the brief TV report, Mary scrambled online to try to track down a report on the arrest, but she found nothing concrete. She knew whom she had to call.
Paul Holes, a retired Contra Costa County District Attorney inspector and former director of the county’s crime lab, had pursued the East Area Rapist case for decades, helping link the Northern and Southern California crimes. The pair last spoke in 2011, after DNA testing had linked the rapist who terrorized the Bay Area with the murder of a Santa Barbara couple. She decided to go public with her story in hopes of shaking loose new leads for the cold case, and gave an extensive interview to this news organization.
“I called him directly and asked him how confident he was,” Mary said.
“‘Mary, I’m 100 percent confident,’ ” he told her.
She broke down in tears and called her 82-year-old mother, her older sister and her best friend.
“(My sister) was in the bedroom right around the hallway. She had wondered, if only she had heard something. … Why did he not open her door?” Mary said. “She was very happy when she heard the news today.”
Three years after the rape and days before her 16th birthday, Mary found her father dead of a heart attack in his bed.
“I’m sure he’s happy too. I bet he was up in heaven pointing his finger at him the whole time,” Mary said.
Mary was attacked in her San Pedro Court home, in the middleclass Rancho San Miguel neighborhood across from Heather Farm Park. Three weeks earlier, a 17-year-old babysitter was raped in a house a few blocks away, and four months earlier a 26-year-old woman in another nearby subdivision pulled the mask off an attacker, causing him to flee.
The rapist entered the Eichler-style home through a sliding-glass door, a hallmark of the predator, and left through a bathroom door, passing her playhouse in the backyard. He threatened to kill her family if she told what happened, so she waited 45 minutes before she freed herself from leg ties, opened her bedroom door with her hands tied behind her back and woke her father.
Mary remembers her father screaming, voice cracking: “Get those things off her!” Her sister cut off the ties and hugged her until police came.
She vividly remembered police confiscating her grandmother’s handmade quilt from her bed, and slicing out pieces for evidence. And then she tried to move on.
Mary still lives in Contra Costa County. She tries not to think much about the attack.
“I can’t say it didn’t affect me, but I can say it doesn’t define me,” she said.
With so many years passed, Mary thought her attacker may have died, but she wasn’t sure.
“I didn’t know. How would you know? I hoped he was dead, but you never know. It could’ve been anyone walking down the street,” she said. “It’s horrible to think this man was living safely in his home for 20 years, just ... ewwwwww.”
She’s not sure if she’ll attend court or confront DeAngelo.
“I haven’t processed that part of it yet. One side of me thinks yes, one side of me says no,” she said. “There are things in my immediate memory bank that I might not want to recall.”
For now, she’s going to finish sewing the quilt for her nephew’s family.
“I’m so happy. All the victims are all sharing a fabulous morning together.”
— Mary, who wanted to use only her first name