Relief comes with text, ‘They got him’
SANTA CRUZ >> Jennifer Carole had just graduated from high school when her dad and stepmom were murdered inside their Ventura home in March 1980. It took nearly 20 years for authorities to determine the suspect was the “Golden State Killer,” a man suspected in a dozen murders and about 45 rapes across California.
Wednesday morning, with the buzz of her cellphone, Carole received news she had waited decades to hear.
“They got him,” read a text from a friend.
Carole, who lives in the Santa Cruz area and works in Silicon Valley, was elated to hear reports that authorities had arrested a suspect in the murder of her father and stepmother, Lyman and Charlene Smith, who were found bludgeoned to death in their home. DNA evidence led authorities to believe the Smiths were killed by a man known as the “Golden State Killer” and “East Area Rapist.”
“I’m having a range of emotions,” Carole said by phone Wednesday morning. “It’s happiness and horror. I’ve cried today. I’m still shaking.”
Lyman Smith was about to be named a Ventura County Superior Court judge and Charlene Smith was an interior decorator when in 1980 they were bound together with drapery cords and beaten to death with a log from their fireplace, the Santa Paula Times reported. Their bodies were found by Lyman’s 12-year-old son.
Initially, police didn’t suspect a serial killer. Instead, two years after the murder, they arrested Joseph Alsip Jr., a former business partner who lost big to Lyman in a real estate deal, the Santa Paula Times reported. Alsip was eventually released for lack of evidence, and in the mid1990s, advanced DNA evidence tied the murders to the Golden State Killer.
Carole said Wednesday she spoke with the district attorney’s office in Ventura County, which confirmed the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, of Citrus Heights. At a news conference later that day, authorities announced murder charges have been filed against DeAngelo in the murders of the Smiths.
“The feelings I have are relief, and also sadness that he’s kind of real now,” Carole said. “It’s a real person. It was easier when it was an unknown monster.”