Background
Between 1974 and 1986 a series of rapes and murders occurred in different parts of California and were for years treated as separate cases. The offender was given different names depending on the region: the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker. In 2001 DNA analysis showed that the East Area Rapist and Night Stalker crimes were by the same person.
For years several agencies investigated separately, with limited information-sharing between counties. A 2001 DNA match tied the files together and the offender began to be called by a new label, "EARONS."
What happened
The crimes began with burglaries in Visalia in 1974, continued as rapes around Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area from 1976 to 1979, and became murders in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Orange counties between 1979 and 1986. In total, 13 murders, at least 51 rapes and more than 220 burglaries were attributed to him. The last victim died in Irvine in 1986. The victims are deliberately not named here.
Investigation and trial
In 2016 the FBI offered a $50,000 reward. In late 2017 investigators uploaded a DNA profile from a rape case to the open genealogy database GEDmatch and built family trees from distant relatives, narrowing the field of suspects. DNA taken from a car door handle and a discarded tissue linked Joseph James DeAngelo to crime-scene samples.
DeAngelo was arrested on 24 April 2018 at age 72 at his home near Sacramento. In June 2020 he pleaded guilty to all 26 counts, 13 murders and 13 kidnappings, and prosecutors dropped the death penalty. On 21 August 2020 he was sentenced to 13 consecutive life terms without parole plus eight years. Although limitation periods barred rape and burglary charges, victims were able to speak at the sentencing hearing.
Where it stands today
DeAngelo is serving his sentence at California State Prison, Corcoran. The case was a landmark for investigative genetic genealogy, and the method has since been used to resolve dozens of old cases.
The case ended the long wait of victims and families, and it also opened debate over the privacy and consent aspects of the method.