Suspected Serial Killer Suspect Linked To Dana Point Murders

DANA POINT, CA — California’s worst unsolved serial murder case broke wide open after decades of dead-ends Tuesday with the arrest of a 72-year-old man believed to be the infamous Golden State Killer/East Bay Rapist/Original Night Stalker.

The arrest, based on DNA evidence, brings relief to Orange County families haunted for decades by the unsolved murders and rapes of loved ones, including the 1980 murders of Dana Point husband and wife Keith and Patrice Harrington. Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested overnight in Sacramento in connection with two Ventura County murders, but police believe he’s the man who terrorized California, raping more than 45 women and killing a dozen more in the Los Angeles, Orange County, Sacramento and San Francisco areas between 1976 and 1986.

Late Wednesday, the Orange County District Attorney's Office charged DeAngelo with all four killings, along with special circumstance allegations of multiple murders, lying in wait and murder during the commission of rape, robbery, burglary and sodomy. The special circumstance allegations open DeAngelo to a possible death sentence. DeAngelo was charged earlier Wednesday with capital murder for the March 1980 killings in Ventura County of Lyman and Charlene Smith. Lyman Smith was a lawyer, and his wife was a court clerk. The pair were bludgeoned to death in their home.

Bruce Harrington, whose brother and sister-in-law were murdered by the Golden State Killer in Orange County, fought for a break in the case for decades, even changing the state's DNA collection law in hopes of one day catching the killer. To the 51 women who were brutally raped, Harrington offered sympathies and a word of peace.

“Sleep soundly tonight,” Harrington said. “He will not come through the window. He’s now in jail, and he’s history.”

It was DNA that helped break the case, said said Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.

``Finally after all these years, the haunting question as to who committed these terrible crimes has been put to rest," said Rackauckas. "We always believed at least for many years that this case would begin and end with DNA. This defendant was able to live free in a nice suburb in Sacramento. Our team is going to work hard to make sure that he never gets out."

A resident of Citrus Heights DeAngelo was a police officer in Auburn during the killing spree. Police raided his home early Tuesday and media descended on the quiet neighborhood where neighbors described a quiet man prone to occasional profanity-laced outbursts.

The Original Night Stalker gained notoriety as much for the mystery surrounding his killing spree as the grisly details. Authorities connected his killings through his methodology. He taunted and torment his victims sometimes tying them up and placing cups or plates on their backs so he would hear if they tried to get away while his back was turned. He often called his victims after the rapes, taunting them and seemingly reveling in his power to inflict terror. It was the Golden State Killer's unsolved murders that led to a change in state law in California mandating the collection of DNA samples from more than 2 million people arrested and convicted of felonies. The initiative was funded by Harrington, who never gave up in his bid to find his brother's killer.

“It is time for all victims to grieve and to take measure one last time, to bring closure to the anguish that we’ve all suffered for the last 40-some-odd years,” said Harrington. “It is time for the victims to begin to heal so long overdue. For law enforcement, bravo, bravo their tenacity their patience their unrelenting focus.”

The first locally known victims were the Harringtons -- in Laguna Niguel. Their bodies were found in their home on Aug. 19, 1980, Tunnicliffe said.

On Feb. 6, 1981, Manuella Witthuhn, was found dead in her Irvine home. The last known Orange County victim -- 18-year-old Janelle Cruz -- was found on May 5, 1986, in her Irvine home.

The emergence of DNA technology in the late 1990s helped local law enforcement link the suspect to four unsolved murders in the Southland, according to Irvine police Detective Sarah Tunnicliffe.

The DNA tests in the late 1990s also helped investigators link the suspect to murders in Ventura and the Santa Barbara area, according to Tunnicliffe, who said the suspect appears to have been inactive from July 1981 through 1986 when Cruz was killed. IFor decades federal investigators poured over a massive trove of evidence connecting the murders.

For decades federal investigators poured over a massive trove of evidence connecting the murders.

The crime spree appears to have started in the summer of 1976 with a series of burglaries and rapes in Rancho Cordova, a suburb of Sacramento. The suspect would pry open a door or window and awaken victims with a flashlight and then tie them up.

In the Irvine cases, the killer broke into the homes, Tunnicliffe said.

The investigation into the case gained renewed interest with the recent publication of the book "I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer" by writer Michelle McNamara, the late wife of actor/comedian Patton Oswalt. McNamara died in 2016 while working on the book, but Oswalt helped finish the work, which was released earlier this year.

"She would be beyond excited about this," Oswalt wrote on his Twitter page when news of the arrest broke. "I think this is the definition of `bittersweet."'

McNamara's book includes a passage envisioning the scene when the killer is ultimately arrested, saying he would hear a car pulling up outside and "footsteps coming up your front walk."

"The doorbell rings. No side gates are left open. You're long past leaping over a fence. Take one of your hyper, gulping breaths. Clench your teeth. Inch timidly toward the insistent bell. This is how it ends for you. `You'll be silent forever, and I'll be gone in the dark,' you threatened a victim once. Open the door. Show us your face. Walk into the light."

City News Service and Patch Staffer Ashley Ludwig contributed to this report. Photos courtesy of Sacramento County Sheriff's Office and the FBI