Joseph DeAngelo arrested after decades-long hunt
# Golden State Killer Caught at 72 Using Genetic Genealogy
**Joseph James DeAngelo Jr.** was arrested in April 2018 in Citrus Heights, Sacramento County, California, ending one of the longest and most intensive manhunts in American criminal history. The 72-year-old former police officer stood accused of being the Golden State Killer, a serial offender responsible for at least 12 murders and at least 45 rapes across California between 1976 and 1986.
The breakthrough came through genetic genealogy, a revolutionary investigative technique that would transform how cold cases are solved worldwide.
East Area Rapist begynder forbrydelser
Joseph James DeAngelo begynder sin forbrydelsesserie i Sacramento-området som East Area Rapist. Som politibetjent i Auburn bruger han sit kendskab til efterforskningsmetoder til at bryde ind i hjem og voldtage kvinder.
Intensiveret aktivitet i Sacramento
Indbrud og voldtægter intensiveres i Sacramento-forstæderne. DeAngelo angriber næsten 50 kvinder og piger i flere nordcaliforniske amter.
Eskalering til mord i Sydcalifornien
DeAngelo flytter sin aktivitet sydpå og begynder at myrde par i deres hjem. Som Original Night Stalker begynder mordserien i Sydcalifornien.
Mord på par i Ventura County
Et par myrdes i Ventura County, som DeAngelo senere blev sigtet for.
Sidste kendte forbrydelse
En 18-årig kvinde voldtages og myrdes i Irvine, Californien. Det er den sidste forbrydelse koblet til sagen, hvorefter angrebene stopper pludseligt.
DNA afslører én gerningsmand
DNA-analyse afslører at East Area Rapist, Original Night Stalker og Golden State Killer er den samme person.
Anholdelse gennem slægtsgenetik
Joseph James DeAngelo, 72 år, anholdes i Citrus Heights, Sacramento County. Efterforskere brugte familietræ-DNA-søgning og GEDmatch til at identificere ham.
Between summer 1976 and May 1986, an unknown offender terrorized California communities in a crime spree that evolved from burglary and rape to murder. The perpetrator operated under several monikers before investigators connected the cases.
Starting in 1976, the **East Area Rapist** began a series of burglaries and sexual assaults in Sacramento suburbs. According to the Los Angeles Times, investigators attributed attacks on nearly 50 women and girls to this phase of crimes, which continued through 1979 across several Northern California counties.
The offender's pattern was distinctive and terrifying. He would break into homes at night, often targeting couples, and display an intimate knowledge of his victims' neighborhoods and routines.
By 1979, the attacks shifted to Southern California, where the perpetrator became known as the **Original Night Stalker**. This phase included both rapes and murders, with crimes occurring between 1979 and 1981 in Southern California communities.
In March 1980, a couple was murdered in Ventura County in an attack that would later result in charges against DeAngelo. The violence continued until May 1986, when the FBI identified the final crime tied to the case: the rape and murder of an 18-year-old woman in Irvine, California.
Then the attacks stopped. For more than three decades, the case went cold.
For years, investigators didn't realize they were dealing with a single perpetrator. The East Area Rapist cases in Northern California and the Original Night Stalker murders in Southern California were handled by different agencies. Eventually, DNA evidence would prove these crimes were committed by the same person.
The breakthrough came in 2018 when investigators employed a novel approach: genetic genealogy. Law enforcement uploaded DNA from crime scenes to GEDmatch, a public genetic database used by people researching their family trees.
This technique didn't directly identify DeAngelo. Instead, it identified distant relatives whose DNA partially matched the crime scene evidence. Investigators then built family trees, working backward and forward through generations to identify potential suspects.
The family-tree DNA searching eventually narrowed the suspect pool to Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., a former police officer living in Citrus Heights. Investigators conducted surveillance and obtained DNA samples that confirmed the match.
On April 24, 2018, DeAngelo was arrested at his home in Sacramento County. He was 72 years old.
The arrest represented a watershed moment in criminal investigation. The Golden State Killer case became the first high-profile example of genetic genealogy solving a major cold case, a technique that would subsequently be used in hundreds of other investigations.
Following his arrest in 2018, DeAngelo faced multiple charges for murders committed during his decade-long crime spree across California.
The case presented unique challenges for prosecutors. Decades had passed since the crimes, some victims had died, and evidence had aged. The charges filed against DeAngelo focused on murders where the evidence was strongest, including the March 1980 Ventura County couple's deaths.
Prosecutors had to navigate crimes committed across multiple counties, requiring coordination between various district attorneys' offices. The DNA evidence, preserved from crime scenes decades earlier, became crucial to the case.
DeAngelo's status as a former police officer added another dimension to the proceedings. His law enforcement background explained how he might have evaded capture for so long and understood investigative techniques used to track him.
The case against Joseph James DeAngelo demonstrated how modern forensic techniques could bring decades-old cold cases to resolution. The genetic genealogy method used to identify him revolutionized cold case investigation.
DeAngelo's arrest provided closure to countless victims and their families who had waited more than 30 years for answers. The crimes he committed in Sacramento, Ventura County, and throughout California had left communities traumatized for generations.
The case remains significant not only for the crimes themselves but for establishing genetic genealogy as a legitimate investigative tool. Law enforcement agencies worldwide have since adopted similar techniques.
The Golden State Killer case generated extensive media coverage, both during the original crime spree and following DeAngelo's arrest in 2018.
ABC News provided detailed coverage of the arrest and subsequent legal proceedings, documenting how investigators used genetic genealogy to identify the suspect after decades.
The FBI highlighted the case as an example of how new forensic techniques could solve cold cases that seemed impossible to crack through traditional methods.
The Los Angeles Times covered the investigation extensively, detailing the scope of the East Area Rapist's crimes and their impact on Northern California communities.
The case spawned numerous documentaries, books, and podcasts examining both the crimes and the investigation. The story resonated internationally as an example of how persistence and technological innovation could achieve justice even decades after crimes occurred.
- ABC News coverage of Joseph DeAngelo arrest and charges
- FBI reports on the Golden State Killer investigation
- Los Angeles Times reporting on the East Area Rapist crimes
- GEDmatch genetic genealogy database documentation