Suspected Golden State Killer Arrested After Over 40 Years of Searching

[Rachel333]

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/25/report-suspected-golden-state-killer-arrested-after-eluding-authorities-for-decades/

It is also very likely thanks at least in part to Michelle McNamara, late wife of Patton Oswalt, whose book about the Golden State Killer was published earlier this year.

It's a fascinating story on multiple levels and if this is indeed the murderer I'm glad he will finally face justice. This is what Michelle McNamara once wrote to the killer:

[ladyamylynn]

This is insane- I'm absolutely not surprised he was a cop. 

[mstee]

This is exciting that after all these years they may have gotten the guy. What he did was so awful and I think the victims and their families deserve to put a face and name to the crime. It’ll be interesting to hear how they found him. Definitely no surprise that he’s a former cop. 

[artdecades]

This is so crazy. Just a few days ago I was at the LA Times Festival of Books and saw Patton Oswalt speak about his wife's book. I'm on the list for it at the library but its so long. It's only gonna get longer after today too.

 

Her work really did bring necessary attention to the case, and he should be proud of what she accomplished. 

[nausicaa]

I've been following this case for years and have basically lost my mind today. All work is done for the day. I will be stuck on Reddit mainlining M&Ms for the foreseeable future. 

Only shocked he is a cop because I really believed he was a teenager when this began. I know the LE description was always 25 to 35, but most eyewitness accounts put him at 17-19. Also he did so many juvenile things, like stealing cheap items and eating food out of the fridge. 

His poor daughters. I'm sure being raised by a father who is a serial killer with pathological misogyny and what appears to be a mother who is a narcissistic divorce lawyer wasn't exactly a walk in the park. 

[doozeratwork]

This is unreal! I always assumed he was dead and we would never get answers. 

The press conference started a few minutes ago.

http://fox40.com/2018/04/24/east-area-rapist-suspect-identified-arrested/

I find it very fascinating that so many of the theories are turning out to be correct - law enforcement officer, age, former military, was also the Visalia Ransacker, was married, was young. Absolutely amazing!

[Howl]

I really want to know what led up to identifying him as the killer after all of these years.  I'm stunned by the number of horrific crimes he committed without being caught. 

[doozeratwork]

18 minutes ago, Howl said:

I really want to know what led up to identifying him as the killer after all of these years.  I'm stunned by the number of horrific crimes he committed without being caught. 

I know it was a tip from someone who knew him and then the police watched him and picked up discarded DNA to compare against EARONS DNA. If that’s all then it seems almost coincidental. They’ve had thousands and thousands of tips, even just in the last few years! 

[adidas]

I was only reading about this yesterday (note that it was published only 24 hours ago on April 25 and it says he was never found). I hadn’t heard of the Golden State Killer, but most Australians are familiar with Mr Cruel. 

http://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/crime/sacramentobased-serial-killer-shared-bizarre-traits-with-australian-killer-mr-cruel/news-story/76233f42e8116fa60c77394a9d756a9c

[artdecades]

2 hours ago, adidas said:

I was only reading about this yesterday (note that it was published only 24 hours ago on April 25 and it says he was never found). I hadn’t heard of the Golden State Killer, but most Australians are familiar with Mr Cruel. 

http://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/crime/sacramentobased-serial-killer-shared-bizarre-traits-with-australian-killer-mr-cruel/news-story/76233f42e8116fa60c77394a9d756a9c

I would say most people aren’t familiar with him, at least not to the level of someone like the zodiac. That’s partially why it’s so fascinating. He was extremely prolific but he worked in many different parts of CA and no one connected these crimes until DNA in the 90s. He was called the east area rapist, the original night stalker, and the Visalia ransacker before Michelle Macnamara dubbed him the Golden State Killer. 

[Suz8710]

I was so excited to hear this! My family is from one of the areas where he committed his crimes and it's always shocked me how few people were made aware of this guy when it was happening. I only learned about EARONS about 4 years ago. Today I even spoke to several folks who lived in nearby areas at the time and they only ever had vague recollections of the crimes.

We are lucky to have the media coverage we do nowadays. That being said I feel terrible for all the POI's wrongly outed by armchair sleuths along with the suspect's family. I hope they get the privacy they so rightly deserve.

[adidas]

21 hours ago, artdecades said:

I would say most people aren’t familiar with him, at least not to the level of someone like the zodiac. That’s partially why it’s so fascinating. He was extremely prolific but he worked in many different parts of CA and no one connected these crimes until DNA in the 90s. He was called the east area rapist, the original night stalker, and the Visalia ransacker before Michelle Macnamara dubbed him the Golden State Killer. 

Oh I’d heard of the original night stalker, but didn’t realise it was the same person. 

[Howl]

On 4/25/2018 at 4:00 PM, adidas said:

I was only reading about this yesterday (note that it was published only 24 hours ago on April 25 and it says he was never found). I hadn’t heard of the Golden State Killer, but most Australians are familiar with Mr Cruel. 

http://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/crime/sacramentobased-serial-killer-shared-bizarre-traits-with-australian-killer-mr-cruel/news-story/76233f42e8116fa60c77394a9d756a9c

DNA should quickly sort out if he is Mr. Cruel. 

[Howl]

Apparently, a genealogical DNA database was used, and supposedly it was not Ancestry.com or 23andMe. 

[mstee]

@Howl interesting! I was just mentioning to my husband a few weeks ago about the possibility of using a dna database to solve the mystery (I had been watching a special on him on HLN) but I know some states have laws against it. 

[PennySycamore]

The Golden State Killer case was an impetus for California to start their state's DNA database.  

One of the linked stories on the article from the Mercury News was about Ashely Freeman and Lauria Bible, two teenage girls that mysteriously disappeared some years ago in Welch, Oklahoma.  They have, after many years, finally solved the disappearance and murder of the two girls.

[Ozlsn]

9 hours ago, Howl said:

DNA should quickly sort out if he is Mr. Cruel. 

I tend to think it's unlikely, just because the age range of the victims is so different from the US ones.

[Imaginary_Wonderland]

I never heard of this Golden State Killer before. I find it fascinating that he has been found out after so long getting away with it. I'm starting to read up on this all now. But I am so curious to know why he just stopped, did something happen or change to make him re-think what he was doing. I find it so hard to believe someone who could commit those crimes and treat others like that, can develop a conscience enough to change or control themselves. Or maybe he didn't stop, perhaps he got smarter about it and some unsolved cases can be linked to him now too.

[Briefly]

21 hours ago, PennySycamore said:

The Golden State Killer case was an impetus for California to start their state's DNA database.  

One of the linked stories on the article from the Mercury News was about Ashely Freeman and Lauria Bible, two teenage girls that mysteriously disappeared some years ago in Welch, Oklahoma.  They have, after many years, finally solved the disappearance and murder of the two girls.

Trigger warning.  I live near Tulsa, the story of these two girls has never really left my mind.  I think they have solved what happened to them, although they may never be found. It's always been big news here, every few months a news story would come on about them. I am not surprised at the story of what probably did happen to them, but I was hoping and praying that it was not what it most likely was.  Everyone was hopeful that they would be found alive, then as time passed it became obvious that they were probably dead and most people here were hoping that if they were dead, that they had been killed at the time of the one girl's parents being killed and that they did not go through anything unpleasant.  Unfortunately, it sound like they were alive for at least a few days and it was pretty bad.  It's just heartbeaking.

I'm not sure what thread it was mentioned on, but there is another story that I saw mentioned here a while back. It concerns the Bever brothers, two teenage boys that killed their parents and most of their siblings.  I live in the same town and actually less than 2 miles from their house although we didn't know them.  That story is heartbreaking as well.

[PennySycamore]

There is a People Magazine Investigates about the Golden State Killer starting right now at 10 PM Eastern on Discovery ID.

[Seculardaisy]

I am inclined to wonder if he stopped once he realized a few things:

1) DNA testing was becoming more known

2) His first daughter was born in 1981. His next killing was not until 5 years later. As if he tried stopping “to be a father” and then couldn’t resist. Maybe he realized the affect this was going to have on his daughters if he was caught.

3) His progressing age. He wouldn’t be as swift or agile anymore.

Who knows. I have been going down a google rabbit hole on this case since he was caught. I can’t wait to start reading “I’ll be gone in the dark” tonight. 

It’s unfortunate that all three of his daughters have been doxxed by the internet. I cannot imagine what they’re going through.

[nausicaa]

On 4/27/2018 at 5:07 AM, Ozlsn said:

I tend to think it's unlikely, just because the age range of the victims is so different from the US ones.

I've never understood why there was ever a connection made between Mr. Cruel and the GSK. The GSK very clearly had zero interest in children, including shutting one boy's bedroom door so he wouldn't hear the assault, and letting a little girl who woke up in the middle of the night and saw him with no mask go back to bed unbothered. It's actually notable how little of an interest he had in terrorizing or assaulting children, since he was so sadistic in every other way.

[Seculardaisy]

5 minutes ago, nausicaa said:

I've never understood why there was ever a connection made between Mr. Cruel and the GSK. The GSK very clearly had zero interest in children, including shutting one boy's bedroom door so he wouldn't hear the assault, and letting a little girl who woke up in the middle of the night and saw him with no mask go back to bed unbothered. It's actually notable how little of an interest he had in terrorizing or assaulting children, since he was so sadistic in every other way.

His youngest rape victim was 13 at the time. So I don’t think he was totally uninterested in assaulting children.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5666771/amp/Brother-youngest-rape-victim-Golden-State-Killer-worked-murderers-ex-wife.html

[nausicaa]

58 minutes ago, Seculardaisy said:

I am inclined to wonder if he stopped once he realized a few things:

1) DNA testing was becoming more known

2) His first daughter was born in 1981. His next killing was not until 5 years later. As if he tried stopping “to be a father” and then couldn’t resist. Maybe he realized the affect this was going to have on his daughters if he was caught.

3) His progressing age. He wouldn’t be as swift or agile anymore.

I still can't believe he was ever that swift or agile. He outran so.many.people. It's one of the many reasons I thought he was much younger. I really pictured a stick skinny track and field athlete,  not a doughy thirty-something father. 

I really thought he had died, either from a drug overdose or some car accident going 100 mph on a gravel road, since he was such an adrenaline junkie. I (Obviously I missed my calling profiling for the FBI...)

Is it even stranger to anyone that serial killers and rapists can just stop? Like, I can comprehend that some people are born with certain wiring messed up, often exacerbated by an abusive childhood, where they get off on others' pain and feel no empathy. But to have the compulsion to do this for so many years, and take so many risks, and then to just...stop. And become some suburban dad who makes tables and works on his car. That's even crazier to me. 

[nausicaa]

3 minutes ago, Seculardaisy said:

His youngest rape victim was 13 at the time. So I don’t think he wasn’t interested in assailting children.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5666771/amp/Brother-youngest-rape-victim-Golden-State-Killer-worked-murderers-ex-wife.html

I always got the feeling she wasn't the main target in that attack, but she looked old enough that he could fit her into his desired victim profile since she was there anyway. 

There was a discussion once on the EAR/ONS boards that Wardlow looked older than her age and was post-puberty at thirteen. Which obviously  doesn't diminish how terrible what he did was or make her not a child mentally. But does make things a bit more consistent with his MO. Mr. Cruel on the other hand definitely had an interest solely in pre-pubescent girls who looked very much like young children still.