November 8, 1945 - Joseph James Dengelo
His case remained open for decades partly because investigators were searching for multiple offenders — it wasn't until 2001 that DNA evidence confirmed the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker were one and the same man. Operating across California over more than a decade, DeAngelo accumulated victims across three distinct criminal phases: burglaries, sexual assaults, and murders, often taunting those he targeted and the law enforcement pursuing him. His eventual identification in 2018 through genealogical DNA analysis marked a turning point in how cold cases of this scale could be solved.
From Wikipedia
Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. (born November 8, 1945) is an American serial killer, serial rapist and former police officer known as the Golden State Killer, the Original Night Stalker, the East Area Rapist and the Visalia Ransacker, who committed thirteen murders and numerous rapes and burglaries across California between 1974 and 1986. DeAngelo's crimes began in Northern California, where he committed a minimum of 120 burglaries and one murder in the San Joaquin Valley, before moving to Sacramento County, where he committed at least 51 rapes and two more murders from 1976 to 1979. In Southern California, DeAngelo murdered at least ten people from 1979 until 1986 before going dormant.
After committing a series of highly publicized burglaries in and around Visalia, DeAngelo escalated to raping victims in East Sacramento and was additionally linked to attacks in Stockton, Modesto, and Contra Costa County. He committed serial murders in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Orange counties from 1979 to 1986. DeAngelo is believed to have taunted and threatened both victims and police via obscene phone calls and possibly written communications.
During the decades-long investigation, several suspects were cleared through DNA evidence, alibis or other investigative methods. In 2001, DNA testing indicated that the offenders labeled the "East Area Rapist" and the "Original Night Stalker" were the same person, resulting in the combined acronym EARONS.
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