SACRAMENTO — Law enforcement officials have identified suspected Golden State serial killer as former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo.
The 72-year-old is in custody following a decades-long search.
The Golden State Killer is a serial killer, serial rapist and serial burglar who committed 50 rapes in Northern California during the mid-1970s and murdered 12 people in Southern California from 1979 through 1986.
DeAngelo was arrested and charged Wednesday with two counts of murder. Officials are expected to make an official arrest announcement Wednesday afternoon.
The crimes initially centered on the then unincorporated areas of Carmichael, Citrus Heights and Rancho Cordova, all east of Sacramento, where at least fifty women were raped between June 18, 1976, and July 5, 1979. Some suspect that earlier incidents in Visalia are also connected. In 2001, several of the Northern California rapes were linked by DNA to murders in Southern California. All of the DNA-linked assaults occurred in Contra Costa County but the distinctive modus operandi (MO) of the rapist makes it very likely the same man was also responsible for the attacks in the Sacramento area. His last known crime, the only one after 1981, took place in 1986.
Several suspects were cleared through DNA, alibi, or other investigative means and methods.
