Who Is Jane Carson Sandler? East Bay Rapist Survivor Reacts to Arrest in Golden State Killer Case

An arrest was made Wednesday in the case of the Golden State Killer, years after a serial criminal allegedly went on a spree throughout California before vanishing. Also known as the East Bay Rapist, the Golden State Killer is a suspected rapist and serial killer who was allegedly active in the 1970s.

Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer, was arrested Wednesday in connection to the case. Jane Carson Sandler, a victim of the East Bay Rapist in 1976, was informed of the arrest Wednesday.

"I just found out this morning," said Carson Sandler, according to the Island Packet. "I'm overwhelmed with joy. I've been crying, sobbing."

Carson Sandler, then 30, was attacked inside her home in Citrus Heights, California, in October 1976, the Packet reported. Now living in Hilton Head, South Carolina, she said she did not recognize the picture of the man who was arrested.

"I feel like I'm in the middle of a dream, and I'm going to wake up and it's not going to be true," Carson Sandler told the Associated Press on Wednesday. "It's just so nice to have closure and to know he's in jail."

The so-called Golden State Killer was believed to have committed at least 40 rapes in Northern California before disappearing. DNA evidence later connected the same person to a string of at least 12 murders in Southern California years later.

The case garnered renewed attention with the publication of I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, written by Michelle McNamara. Carson Sandler also documented her account in a book called Frozen in Fear: A True Story of Surviving the Shadows of Death.

FBI
Police sketch of what authorities believe the Golden State Killer may have looked like. California authorities have made an arrest in the infamous case. FBI

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