Updated | California authorities have made an arrest in the infamous Golden State Killer case, they announced in a Wednesday press conference.
Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in California early Wednesday morning on two counts of murder, according to Sacramento County Jail.
Sacramento Sheriff's Department Office announced DeAngelo as the suspect in the Golden State Killer case. The case was cracked using DNA evidence.
DeAngelo was a former police officer in the 1970s. He had been living in Citrus Heights, California, in Sacramento County for over 30 years, according to The Sacramento Bee.
The Golden State Killer—also known as the East Bay Rapist— was a suspected serial killer, burglar and rapist who was thought to be active in California in the 1970s.
The Golden State Killer is believed to have committed at least 40 rapes in Northern California in the 1970s and then thought to have vanished. In the early 2000s, through DNA evidence, authorities determined that the suspected rapist was the same person as a suspected serial killer who went on a murder spree in Southern California starting in 1979, according to San Francisco Chronicle.
The killer is thought to be responsible for at least 12 murders, according to the FBI.
"Beginning in the summer of 1976, burglaries and rapes occurred in Rancho Cordova and Carmichael, California, both suburbs of Sacramento. The [suspect] gained entry into the homes of his victims by prying open a window or door while they slept," said the FBI, which offered a $50,000 reward for information that lead to the suspect's capture in 2016. "He would then shine a flashlight into the face of his victims, tie up the female victim and, if a male victim was present, tied him up as well. The [suspect] then ransacked the residence and raped the female victim. He often took small items from the residences including coins, cash, identification, and jewelry. Some victims reported receiving telephone calls from the suspect after the crimes."
The last suspected murder occurred in 1986. The case went cold after that.
The case regained notoriety in a book published this year, I'll Be Gone in the Dark, authored by Michelle McNamara, the late wife of comedian Patton Oswald. McNamara died in 2016, but the book was finished by Oswald and researchers.
This story was updated to include information from a press conference organized by the Sacramento, California, District Attorney 's office.
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