If you hadn’t heard by now, authorities have caught the alleged Golden State Killer, aka the Original Night Stalker, aka the East Area Rapist, via familial DNA match.
Now, you might have been living under a rock and have no idea what I’m talking about. But for a day at least, it was a big enough story to yank America’s eyes away from the continual drama of the Trump Administration and Facebook’s data woes.
The Golden State Killer, whom authorities claim is 72-year-old Joseph DeAngelo, terrorized California from 1976–1986. During that period, he murdered at least 12 people, raped at least 45 women and committed more than 100 burglaries. Despite a couple of pursuits (one of which he rode a bicycle) he eluded authorities.
I say “at least” because in cases like these, there’s a strong possibility in cases like these that once-unconnected homicides will be uncovered.
For more than 20 years, it was not known that the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker were the same person. In 2001, that changed thanks to DNA.
But, the DNA didn’t solve the case at that point. The authorities had the Golden State Killer’s DNA, but they didn’t have anyone in their databases to match it to. Whoever the Golden State Killer was, he had apparently been good at avoiding arrest for any sort of felony. All law enforcement had was…
