UPDATE: California authorities announced at a press conference Wednesday that they have identified the notorious Golden State Killer responsible for a terrifying wave of killings, rapes, and burglaries in the 1970s and '80s.
Joseph James DeAngelo, a 72-year-old former police officer, now faces capital murder charges and other counts, CNN reports.
After police were able to link DeAngelo's DNA to genetic evidence from crimes, he was arrested early Wednesday morning at his Sacramento-area home. He is currently being held without bail in Sacramento.
"Finally, after all these years, the haunting question of who committed these terrible crimes has been put to rest," Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckus said at the press conference.
ORIGINAL STORY:
He wore a ski mask while he pried open the windows and doors of his victims' homes. Then he'd shine a flashlight into their eyes as he entered their bedrooms to tie them up.
From 1976 to 1986, the Golden State Killer — also referred to as "The East Area Rapist" — was linked by DNA and method to 12 murders, 45 rapes, and over 120 burglaries in California. His victims ranged in age from 13 to 41, but were always women at home alone or with their families. He was the subject of many true crime TV specials.
And this week — decades after he last terrorized Southern California — authorities may have finally caught the man behind the ski mask.
According to The Sacramento Bee, a suspect in the notorious case was arrested in Sacramento County early Wednesday morning.
FBI agents and Sacramento County and Southern California law enforcement were reportedly seen outside the home of Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who was booked today on two counts of murder from a Ventura County Sheriff's Department warrant.
Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert told Fox 40 that the case is "the most prolific unsolved serial killing case probably in modern history." So, if DeAngelo is the true unsub, this is a HUGE deal.
Understandably, Twitter has been freaking out about the development all morning:
Authorities have not yet confirmed that DeAngelo is, in fact, the Golden State Killer, though DeAngelo is 5'11" and now between the ages of 60 and 75 years old — a match for the FBI's profile of the unsub. More information will be released Wednesday afternoon at a press conference at 3 p.m. local time.
The Golden State Killer is the subject of I'll Be Gone in the Dark, a new book (soon to become an HBO documentary) that names DeAngelo as the case's prime suspect. Though Michelle McNamara, its writer, died before the book was published, writer Billy Jensen, researcher Paul Haynes, and her husband, Patton Oswalt, finished it for print
In the wake of DeAngelo's arrest, the book — McNamara, specifically — is being credited for this new development in the case:
Though DeAngelo's link to the case has yet to be confirmed, the news still comes as an astonishing relief for the many people who gave up hope of closure long ago — especially his victims.
Jane Carson-Sandler, who was sexually assaulted at knifepoint by the man suspected as the Golden State Killer, told The Island Packet: "I just found out this morning. I'm overwhelmed with joy. I've been crying, sobbing."
