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[Music] we would like to thank the following people for their help and support in the
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research of this series a stereo rapist survivor John Carson semla original nice
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thought of victim family members Michelle Cruz and Debbie Domingo retired Sacramento County Sheriff's Department
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detectives Richard Shelby and Carol Daly retired Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department detective Larry Crompton
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Contra Costa County DA cold-case investigator Paul hulls and Orange County DA investigator Erika Hodge craft
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this series deals with horrific sexual assault offences and there's a lot of them we feel it's a very important story
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to cover but it won't be suitable for all listeners so please use your discretion if you decide to keep
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listening we will be releasing a map with each episode to help as you go along or for you to refer to afterwards
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you'll find a link to the map in the show notes on our web site or you should be able to access the link from the show
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notes in your app when part 4 began it was August 1978 sergeant Jim Bevan Center lieutenant ray root from the
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Sacramento task force held a special meeting with law enforcement agencies in Contra Costa County they believed that
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the east area rapist was heading south possibly to Southern California and they felt it would strike in Contra Costa
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County on the way they advised contra Costa law enforcement agencies to form a task
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force and work together but there was pushback the general feeling in the room was not in our county
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when Bevans and root were proven right a task force was formed headed up by detective Larry Crompton crompton
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consulted a criminal psychologist dr. Emily who warned him the east area rapist wanted to kill he just needed
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justification during a search after attack 43 the first attack in Danville investigators found pages torn from a
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spiral notebook known as the homework the General Custer essay the sixth grade grant into the punishment map a
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hand-drawn map of a housing development on July 5th 1979 the east area rapist attacked a couple in Danville but they
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had a plan in place the husband stood over the rapist then yelled at him while his wife ran outside and screamed for
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help the rapist took a few steps back he didn't attack and he made no move for a
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weapon he didn't say anything he just stared at her husband through the jagged holes of
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his mask the husband made a run for it into the east area rapist escaped police were on the scene in minutes and
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tracking dogs picked up his scent but he slipped through their fingers again the
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failed Danville attacked rattled the east area rapist he never showed up in Contra Costa County again by me to 1979
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detectives had 12,000 persons of interest the man of suspects who had many characteristics of a stereo rapist
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was huge every second suspect seemed like a sure thing but one by one they were eliminated the east area rapist was
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in the only violent criminal on the loose either according to detective Larry Compton Northern California was a
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melting pot for disturbing criminals by October 1979 three months had passed without any sign of the east area rapist
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every area that had been hit up to that point was on tenterhooks the rapist had taken breaks before just when they
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thought he had disappeared he always reappeared somewhere else it was only a matter of where and why
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it had been over three years and almost 50 attacks since the east area rapist started not one law enforcement agency
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had a solid lead or a clear and complete description of the rapist he had beaten
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them time and time again it was easy to believe in the beginning that many of the nuances the little phrases voices
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and behaviors painted a picture of who he was but as the years went on it became accepted that many of these
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details will likely deliberate attempts to throw off survivors and police the east area rapist was someone who likely
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didn't stand out in everyday life he could have been anyone if he was in fact the same man who had attended open house
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inspections acting strangely it seemed to be the only times he consistently stood out as someone creepy and unusual
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the attacks after sunrise and after dinner showed his increasing confidence his bursts of multiple attacks in short
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space of time followed by retreating for a while was his dig and retreat method of attacking a circling predator waiting
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for the right time to strike he took an interest in the press coverage and attention his crimes generated he
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started attacking couples when the press made special mention of the fact he never attacked when a man was home one
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of the men he targeted had stood up and created a scene about the rapist at a town meeting the attack after this was
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close by to a dentist's office in South Sacramento the dentist headed one of the
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civilian protection groups and had personally contributed to the reward for the rapist capture it was the furthest
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south the exterior rapist had attacked up to that point he seemed to respond to people challenging him when he used
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physical violence it always seemed to be after a failed attack when things didn't
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go his own way the last attacking Denville had been just that not only did his chosen
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victims get away the husband challenged him and got the better of him the a stereo rapist didn't seem to know what
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to do it had been three months since that danville attack many agencies breathed a
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sigh of relief the Crompton kept his ears open the words from sergeant Bevins and
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lieutenant route burned in his mind the east area rapist was heading south to Southern California
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Crompton had the sinking feeling things were going to get worse the words of dr.
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Emily never left him he'd better catch him he wants to kill and he will [Music] six hours south of Sacramento in two
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hours northwest of Los Angeles is the city of gelida that sits fifteen minutes west of the city of Santa Barbara and is
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home to the University of California Santa Barbara campus very few people from Southern California had heard of be
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a stereo rapist law-enforcement agencies were busy dealing with their own crime in their own jurisdictions and weren't
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concerned with what crimes were being committed in Northern California Goleta had its fair share of burglaries and
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theft's but violent crimes weren't common on October 1st 1979 three months after the last east area rapist attack
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Santa Barbara police attended the scene of a burglary and attempted rape attack one for this episode it was 2:00 a.m.
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the couple who lived in the house were asleep when the rear glass sliding door was pried over a foot rested on the base
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of their bed tapping up and down wake up wake up a flashlight shown in their eyes
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get on your stomach's don't move [ __ ] or I'll kill you don't move or turn your head I've got to have money
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he threw shoelaces down and made the naked woman tie her husband up tie it tight or I'll kill you after the woman
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tied her husband the intruder retied him he then tied the woman up but only very loosely he
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constantly threatened them with the line I'll kill you [ __ ] in fact every line that came from his mouth used
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the word kill after rummaging around the kitchen for the woman's purse he came back and
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dragged her from the bed down the hall he threw her down to the ground and retired her ankles now I'm going to kill
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you I'm going to cut your throat he walked away and paced the kitchen muttering over and over I'll kill
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I'll kill I'll kill him he then walked off down the hall towards her husband muttering to himself the woman got up
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naked and stilt beyond with her head covered she couldn't see but she knew the direction of the front door she got
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to the front door and opened it as she did her ankle bindings loosened enough for her to run she ran as fast as she
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could and started screaming but she still couldn't see and she came to an abrupt stop when she slammed into the
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side of the house a gloved hand grabbed a face covering her mouth I told you to be quiet he dragged her back inside and
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shoved her to the floor after hearing his wife screams the husband was sure she was being killed he flung himself
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off the bed made it to the bedroom sliding door and got outside the intruder heard the door open he ran
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outside of being his flashlight into the darkness trying to find him the husband
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was hiding in the bushes the intruder couldn't find him so he walked back inside to finish what he was
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there to do but the woman was gone she had ran down the hallway towards the bedroom the husband got up and tried to
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throw his weight against the fence to break it down so he could escape but a wouldn't budge
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hearing the commotion the next-door neighbour turned his light on to see what was going on the husband screamed
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for his life the intruder gave up and draining out the front door the neighbor was an
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off-duty FBI agent he saw the masked intruder running down the driveway grabbed a black and to ride off down the
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street the FBI agent gave chase in his car but the intruder lost him near some bushes a few streets away Santa Barbara
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police attended the bicycle the intruder escaped Don was found in the bushes where the FBI agent lost sight of him
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the bike belonged to a u.s. parole officer it was stolen from his house nearby just after 7:00 p.m. that night a
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black handled state knife was found where the bike was dumped police found evidence the intruder jumped several
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fences and they believe he ran across the nearby school grounds in the weeks leading up to attack one the victims had
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noticed signs of a prowler they kept finding their side gate open and they were often footprints outside their
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windows there were also reports in the neighborhood of cruelty towards dogs just prior to the attack on the couple
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only the week before a woman led a man into her house who turned up at her door with an injured German Shepherd he
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wanted to borrow her phone so he could call a friend to pick him up the next day the man returned to thank her and
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told her his dog had been stabbed requiring 70 stitches the woman found a red rose and a thank-you note left at a
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doorstep the following day another resident was out walking his dog Unleashed the dog
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ran off into a yard and when it returned it was badly injured and had to be taken
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to the vet this man didn't go into the yard to see what had happened to his dog Santa Barbara police reports described a
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violent botched robbery with intent to kill they were looking for a white male suspect about 5 foot 10 or 5 foot 11
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with dark hair above his collar he was wearing a check shirt and a dark ski mask he had some kind of holster on his
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belt on the right side he had stolen just three dollars from the victims had the attack happened in Northern
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California news likely would have made its way back to investigators on the Sacramento or Contra Costa task forces
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it had been three months since the east area rapist last struck in Northern California six hours away the Santa
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Barbara Police weren't aware what was going on there they had no reason to believe this was anything more than a
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one-off attack although we wouldn't receive the name until some years later Southern California had just seen the
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first attack of the original night stalker just shy of three months after attack one five burglaries were reported
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in Goleta four of them with pride sliding glass doors on the night of December 29th 1979 a family returned
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home to see a person walk past the window inside their house the intruder renting out the back door and escaped
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over the back fence when the family went inside they found that poodle had been beaten to death 24 hours later Santa
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Barbara Sheriff's detectives responded to a call in Goleta attack number two half a mile from the poodle attack and
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half a mile from where attack 1 had occurred a woman stood out the front of a condo crying that there were two
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people dead inside the woman and her husband had arrived at the condo to visit their friends 44 year old
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osteopathic surgeon dr. Robert Offerman and his new girlfriend 34 year old psychologist Debra Manning the two
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couples were planning on playing tennis together they'd found the sliding glass door open and when they called out they
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got no reply so they let themselves in they walked up the hall and saw Debra manning in the bedroom
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they thought they were interrupting them so they quickly turned tags at the house
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there's something didn't feel right about what they saw they turned back towards the bedroom and found that
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Robert Offerman and Deborah Manning were both dead when police entered the home they found the couple had been shot
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Robert three times in the back and chest and Deborah a single shot to the back of
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her head Deborah was lying alongside the waterbed naked with her wrists and ankles bound Robert was on his knees on
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the floor holding a length of white nylon cord left-hand police believed he was able to
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get free from his bindings his pose suggests that he had just done that when he was shot
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there were pry marks on the doors of windows from what looked like a screwdriver and they found tennis shoe
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impressions alongside the shoe prints police also noticed dog footprints the dog prints were described as fresh and
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large they also found God cares the human shoe prints matched those found the night before half a mile away
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outside the home where the poodle had been beaten to death a Christmas turkey carcass wrapped in plastic was discarded
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outside on the patio two rings belonging to Deborah were found hidden between the
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mattress and the bed frame one neighbor reported hearing a series of gunshots around 3:00 a.m. the other neighboring
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condo was empty it showed obvious signs of squatting a length of rope was found in the bathroom of the empty condo the
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canvass of the neighborhood revealed there had been other break-ins and homes ransacked earlier that same night a
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neighbor to one of the houses that have been broken into told police of a young man and woman he saw ringing the
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doorbell at the ransacked house the couple were described in their mid to late 20s the man around five foot six to
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five foot eight and the woman around five foot four the neighbor didn't recognize them and the homeowner wasn't
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expecting visitors they were never identified and no one was ever arrested for the break-in a few
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days after attack two nylon rope was found on the front lawn of a house just a few doors down from where attack one
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had occurred three months earlier the same rope was also found along the trail of a nearby creek
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not long after attack - detective Larry Crompton attended a seminar in Santa Barbara
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he got talking to a detective and heard about Robert and Debra's murders as well
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as the first attack three months earlier after hearing about both attacks Compton
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said that's him on Noah but according to Crompton after he spoke to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's
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Office they felt the attacks were unrelated to the east area rapist they didn't think what had happened up north
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would ever happen on their turf and they certainly didn't want the publicity that
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would come with it Santa Barbara sheriff's argued there were too many differences between the east area rapist
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and the to go leader attacks in late January 1980 the Sacramento Bee reported that sergeant Bevins from the Sacramento
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Task Force was dispatched to Santa Barbara to go over the police reports of the two Goleta attacks
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maybe the attacks were just coincidence or maybe the east area rapist had changed his MO and had finally escalated
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as they feared he would Bevin's found quite a few similarities to the east area rapist in the Goleta attacks but
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there were also enough differences Plus Santa Barbara police weren't even sure if the two bellator attacks were
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connected to each other a woman who lived nearby the Goleta attacks reported that while she was at work someone was
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jumping over her fence and releasing her German Shepherd dog was the original night stalker befriending dogs with dog
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bones or food gaining their trust and taking them out for walks with our donors knowing a dog walker doesn't
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raise much suspicion with the strange murders and attacks on dogs that had occurred in the area it seemed that
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could be linked possibly not all dogs took Connolly to the original nightstalker and they met with foul play
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the next two and a half months required in Goleta no one reported any similar attacks on March 13th 1980 the press in
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Sacramento reported again about the possible link between the Goleta attacks in the east area rapist
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later that night forty minutes east of Galena the original night stalker was getting ready to strike again
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attack three east of Goleta on route to Los Angeles liza Ventura tightly hugging
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the Pacific coast Ventura is in a different County to Santa Barbara with a different Police Department and
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different press Charlene and Lyman Smiths immaculate upper-class home set up on the hill in an up-and-coming
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subdivision called clear point and overlooked the sea and the city of Ventura and in those days were
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surrounded by rolling land and vineyards the Powell of Highland corridor ran at an angle to their property heading
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towards the nearby highway Charlene Smith aged 33 was an interior decorator and also sold jewelry and Tupperware her
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husband Lyman Smith aged 43 was a prominent local attorney who was reportedly under consideration for a
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position on the Superior Court Charlene and Lyman were found lying under their covers as if asleep but they had also
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been bound and bludgeoned to death they had been there at least two days before Lyman's twelve-year-old son from his
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first marriage stopped by to mow the lawn bottles of milk and the daily newspapers sat at the front doorstep and
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when he walked inside the alarm clock set for two mornings prior was still going off he found the bodies of his
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father and stepmother [Music] when Lyman didn't turn up to his law firm on the Friday two days earlier his
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law partners just assumed he had an assignment elsewhere the house had been ransacked but nothing was taken
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nor was there any sign of forced entry Lyman son had found the front door unlocked which he said was unusual there
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appeared to be no struggle whatsoever the coroner was initially unable to ascertain the bindings were placed
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before or after death when he checked their adrenal glands he found them completely normal when someone dies
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under stress they usually have shrunken adrenal glands but both Charlene and Lyman's adrenal glands showed a normal
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size and state this led to the initial theory that Charlene and Lyman were killed in their sleep the murderer then
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tying them up and ransacking the house afterwards to stage the crime scene Charlene and Lyman had both suffered one
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blow to the head hard enough to kill them the murder weapon was a log of wood taken from the bedroom patio a piece of
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wall above the bed head was cut out and taken to a blood splatter expert to see if he could determine who was hit first
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the 28 inch length of cord was left laid out at the foot of the bed Lyman was in the running for a position
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on the Superior Court and was involved in various money-making projects he had many investments and was involved in a
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land development company that ran into trouble Charlene was described as vivacious by those who knew her with
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some even calling her a femme fatale when police discovered Charlene had become Lyman's second wife after being
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his secretary they started to dive deeper into both their backgrounds to see if they could find a connection and
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possible motive for their murder there were several lines of inquiry that led to possible motive
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including Charlene having an affair with a deputy sheriff the deputy claimed he didn't know she was married when
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neighbors reported that Charlene and Lyman were arguing in the lead-up to their deaths police say even briefly
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considered they had murdered each other the knots used to tie Charlene and Lyman's wrists with the elaborate
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10-step diamond not the same knot that detective Richard Shelby had found in the early days of the East Area rapist
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but it's all damn been seen again given that the diamond knot was commonly used in macrame Venturer detectives believed
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it was a symbolic gesture used on an interior decorator at her motor site ultimately they determined that the
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murderer was known to Charlene and Lymon forensic reports came back to show Charlene had been raped the forensic
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report also found it was highly likely they were in fact and beyond prior to their murders the coroner said there was
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a chance the adrenal gland report was incorrect given everyone's bodies are different so the new theory was that
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they weren't killed in their sleep at all they were tied up prior to their murders Charlene was raped then right
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before being murdered they will put back in their beds as if they was sleeping staging the scene detectives looked into
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the sheriff's deputy who admitted he was still longing for Charlene after their affair he admitted that on the night of
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their murders he had used binoculars to see if he could see their house from the
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sheriff's building he admitted to driving by the house the night after the murders before their bodies were found
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and that he tried calling her the next morning Lyman's business partner from the failed land development venture was
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Joseph Allsop also had lost a lot of money in this failed venture so he was looked at closely he was looked at even
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closed up when they found his fingerprint on a glass in the kitchen he was questioned and told detectives that
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on the night before Charlene and Lyman's murder he had gone to their place for a
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drink the sheriff's deputy was eventually cleared and detectives honed in on Joseph Alsop back in Sacramento
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sergeant Bevins heard about the double homicide in Ventura he had continued to look at the two Goleta attacks and he
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was now convinced the first attack in Goleta where the victims escaped was the work of the East Area rapist in attack
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to the Robert Offerman and Deborah Manning murders in Goleta Bevans felt that had Robert not put up a
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fight the killer would have raped Deborah but the struggle and murders was the reason no rape was committed there
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was no time as the killer had to flee in attack 3 the use of the diamond not got
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the attention of Bevins although it was hard to find too many other hallmarks of
00:23:44
the East Area rapist in the murders of Charlene and lawn and Smith that Domon not nagged at him then there was the
00:23:51
coincidence that the same day the Sacramento Press reported again about possible links to gelida
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and the east area rapist this double homicide occurred in Ventura 40 miles east of Toledo a different County and
00:24:03
different jurisdiction Bevin's considered that all three attacks in Southern California were linked but
00:24:10
Santa Barbara and Ventura detectives weren't having a bar of it Ventura detectives were convinced that
00:24:16
Charlene and Wyman knew their murderer they ended up arresting Joseph Allsop when a local minister came forward and
00:24:21
stated that also confessed to him but during pretrial it was found that the minister was not of sound mind and if
00:24:28
the DA had been too hasty in laying charges it was deemed there was not enough evidence to take also to trial
00:24:34
and he was released the original nightstalker had now committed three attacks two double homicides and a
00:24:41
failed attempt but no one knew it Santa Barbara and Ventura didn't believe the murders of Charlene and Lyman were
00:24:48
linked to the murders of Robert and Deborah or two the first failed attack in Goleta there were no other attacks
00:24:54
linked to the original night stalker until five months after the Ventura murders Dana Point is in Orange County
00:25:02
it sits halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego Dana Point is about 125 miles southeast of Ventura down past Los
00:25:10
Angeles Dana Point is a small Harbor city known for surfing and its coastal lifestyle homes were generally
00:25:18
middle-class but the whole area had a more upscale air about it 24 year old Keith Harrington was the third-year
00:25:25
medical student about to begin an internship he was recently married to Patty Harrington a
00:25:31
registered nurse who was four years older than him on august of nineteen 1980 they were being watched through
00:25:38
their bedroom window their house was in a small gated community with a security guard so it was impossible to drive in
00:25:45
and out unnoticed but it was easy enough to walk into the gated community unnoticed
00:25:51
after watching through the bedroom window the original night stalker walked the Keith and Patti's unlocked front
00:25:56
door and to let himself in to commit attack for when Kate's father arrived for dinner two nights later he found a
00:26:04
Keith and Patty in bed they were covered over with a blanket both had been bludgeoned to death with blows to the
00:26:10
back of the head Orange County Sheriff's Department responded the forensics team
00:26:16
determined that the blanket was pulled over their heads before they were bludgeoned to death
00:26:21
bruising on their wrists indicated they were both bound tightly but the ligatures were removed after their
00:26:27
deaths three pieces of twine were found on the bed but they believe the killer must have taken some with him as he
00:26:33
would have needed more than what was there to tie Keith and Paddy forensic examination showed that paddy had been
00:26:39
raped no weapon was found but while canvassing the local area and motocross gloves soaked with blood was located a
00:26:46
few blocks away the security guard didn't see or hear anything suspicious no one unknown to
00:26:52
him had passed through the gate when being interviewed for the LA Times an Orange County deputy said quote this was
00:27:00
a senseless and apparently unmotivated crime there would be a degree of comfort if we could say this was a robbery or
00:27:06
that they had enemies but they were warm and compassionate people there is nothing in their background that can
00:27:12
help us there were no leads family members put up a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest but
00:27:20
no arrests came and the case went cold [Music] the Dana Point double homicide of Keith
00:27:28
and Patty Harrington was not linked to the murders aventure are or Goleta there were similarities between Charlene
00:27:34
and Lyman Smith's murders in Ventura both couples were in the early stages of marriage and were bludgeoned to death in
00:27:40
their beds two hours from each other along the Pacific coast the couples had been bound the women raped there was
00:27:47
lack of forced entry and nothing of value was stolen from either crime scene but in Ventura police were still chasing
00:27:54
Lauren's business partner Joseph Allsop they were close to arresting him at this
00:27:59
point so in their minds the case was as good as closed Robert Offerman and Deborah Manning had
00:28:04
been shot in a gelida double homicide so there was no obvious link it would be seven months until Southern California
00:28:11
was hit by the original Night Stalker again attack five twenty-eight-year-old Manuela Whitman
00:28:19
lived on Columbus in a new suburb of Irvine Orange County Irvine had seen huge residential growth in the late 70s
00:28:27
which made it an easy commute to Los Angeles which was just 40 miles north houses were being built everywhere in
00:28:33
the area surrounding Manuel is house was full of a the newly built homes or homes
00:28:37
still under construction the house directly behind her was newly built and was still empty Manuela was born in
00:28:44
Germany and had emigrated to California with her parents who lived close by to her she hadn't gotten used to living in
00:28:50
America and felt uneasy about the crime rate in Los Angeles she worked at a mortgage brokers and had been married to
00:28:57
David Wynn hoon an American of German descent for five years on the night of February 5th 1981 man wellas husband
00:29:06
David was in hospital with a viral infection Manuela was at the hospital with him she wasn't looking forward to
00:29:12
staying in the house alone but after her hospital visit she put on a brave face and went home her father offered to
00:29:18
bring over his German Shepherd to stay with her but she refused when she got home she rolled out her sleeping bag and
00:29:24
placed it on top of the bed she felt safer in the sleeping bag the feeling of being more enclosed too gave her comfort
00:29:31
she went to sleep sometime around 11:00 p.m. the following day Manuel as parents
00:29:38
received a call from David who had been unable to contact his wife when her mother went to check on her she found
00:29:44
her daughter dead police found Manuela had bruises on both her wrists and ankles indicating she being tied however
00:29:52
there was no sign of any ligatures the killer had taken them with him she had been bludgeoned to death no weapon was
00:29:59
found and well as back sliding door had been pried open the pry marks were matched to
00:30:04
a flat head screwdriver found at the scene strangely though the prying was done on the inside of the latch paint
00:30:12
found on the screwdriver was sent for an in-depth analysis it was found to be consistent with a particular paint brand
00:30:18
but it didn't really tell them anything else even if more information was found from the paint the screwdriver was
00:30:24
likely stolen anyway burnt matches were found in both the garage and the house there were some unusual items stolen a
00:30:33
lamp and a crystal display feature both weighing nine peons ended the tape from the answering machine these items were
00:30:40
never recovered the outside investigators found a bedroom television dumped in the back fence their theory
00:30:47
was that the killer staged the crime scene to look like a robbery items in the house of high-value were not touched
00:30:54
the autopsy showed the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the back of man Weller's head she had also been
00:31:01
raped brutally she was scratched and appeared to have been gagged although no gag was found neighbors came forward and
00:31:10
said they had seen a man running from the direction of Man Weller's house early on the morning she was killed two
00:31:16
days later the Los Angeles Times reported on the murder stating ovine police had assigned an eight-man task
00:31:22
force to investigate quote Ervil and police said Miss weekend's death does not appear to be related to other crimes
00:31:29
in the area in recent months however the police patrol in the area has been stepped up a new evil and police
00:31:35
spokesman said the department had received a number of calls urging increased home security believing the
00:31:43
killer was someone known to Manuela Irvine police didn't link the murder to the double homicide of Keith and Patty
00:31:48
Harrington in Dana Point 25 miles away Irvine police suspected Manuel as husband David they looked into his and
00:31:56
manuela backgrounds extensively as well as everyone close to them nothing came of it in the case went cold the police
00:32:05
weren't the only ones who suspected David family and friends did as well he did his best to get on with his life
00:32:11
and he eventually remarried on the 15th of June 1991 the Sacramento Bee printed a retrospective feature on the east area
00:32:21
rapist it had been two years since the last confirmed East Area rapist attack in Danville and three years since a
00:32:28
confirmed attack in Sacramento many residents have come and gone from Sacramento and there were likely people
00:32:34
reading the paper that day that had no idea who the east area rapist wats for others memories were still raw and they
00:32:42
likely would never forget the fear that gripped their city during those years the article mentioned that some
00:32:49
detectives from Sacramento and Contra Costa counties believed the east area rapist was responsible for the gelida
00:32:55
murders of Robert Offerman and Deborah money but admitted it had divided law-enforcement Sacramento police press
00:33:02
spokesman Bill Miller said in the article quote in the end though stunt detectives know little more about the
00:33:09
east area rapist than they did when he first emerged from the drainage ditch in Rancho Cordova
00:33:14
some believe the rapist is now dead or at least the way in prison the official explanation for the east area rapists
00:33:22
disappearance is non-existent there is no way of knowing anything you say about him is going to be guesswork and your
00:33:29
guess is as good as mine so much time has passed in fact that the statute of limitations has expired on most of the
00:33:35
crimes of the thirty attacks in Sacramento County which included breaking into 30 homes raping as many
00:33:41
women assaulting a dozen husbands and some children only two possible kidnapping charges could be prosecuted
00:33:47
if it was caught today although there are a total of 11 East Area rapist cases elsewhere that is still within the
00:33:54
3-year statute Sacramento would only be able to prosecute the two possible kidnapping charges from at acts 8 and 9
00:34:01
when the rapist dragged the females away from the home [Music] when the east area rapist disappeared
00:34:08
from Northern California sergeant Jim Bevins from the Sacramento Sheriff's Task Force became the only officer with
00:34:15
an officially active file on the rapist almost six months after Manuela Joaquin was murdered in Irvine the original
00:34:22
Night Stalker struck again the city of Goleta woke on the morning of July 27th 1981 to the news another couple had been
00:34:32
murdered it had been 18 months since the double murders of Robert Offerman and Deborah Manning and with no similar
00:34:38
murders in the area since life had gone on cherie Domingo aged 35 and Gregory Sanchez age 27 had gone to bed like any
00:34:49
other night on July 26 1991 here is Cheri's daughter Debbie Domingo probably most of June and July mom and I were
00:35:03
arguing just just for purchase late I was a teenager that that didn't like rules and so you know she had some basic
00:35:12
guidelines like you know come home boy when you say you're gonna come home and and you know don't smoke cigarettes and
00:35:18
go running around with boys and I mean just basic stuff you know but I just had I really had to be on the level so I was
00:35:25
challenging her quite a bit that summer and and so we just argued and argued like you wouldn't believe and at one
00:35:33
point I am we fought one day and I I said you know what I have to have it with this I don't have to live here
00:35:42
anymore and I packed some clothes into a backpack and I got on my bicycle and I just took off and I ended up staying
00:35:48
with a couple of different girlfriends for a couple different weeks I would I would stay at a girlfriend's house for a
00:35:54
couple days and then when her parents got tired of me I'd go find another friend to live with and so I had been
00:36:00
away from home for probably about three weeks at the time that she was killed and we had talked on the phone a couple
00:36:06
of times and we've seen each other a couple of times but those encounters were always pretty pretty explosive and
00:36:12
we just we were just screaming at each other all the time the the morning that that the bodies
00:36:23
were discovered at our house we happen to have a friend mo l my mom's my mom's best friend actually lived just kind of
00:36:32
around the corner from us just a few doors down so the morning that the bodies were discovered the police showed
00:36:38
up and of course they put yellow tape everywhere and and you know the news the news camera crews started showing up all
00:36:45
the neighbors were out looking around at the house and trying to figure out what
00:36:48
was going on and of course my mom's best friend you know I haven't talked to her
00:36:54
about the details but she obviously she put together the pieces that that that there was something that wasn't right
00:37:01
and so she started to look for me and she knew that I had been away from home for a couple of weeks and she knew where
00:37:07
I where I worked I had a little part-time job at a movie theater and so she called the movie theater looking for
00:37:12
me and and one of my co-workers ended up calling me and said hey this this woman
00:37:18
was looking for you you should give her a call and I I procrastinated a little bit cuz I thought oh she's just trying
00:37:24
to try to help me you know help mom and I bury the hatchet she you know she's trying to make peace and but I called
00:37:32
her and she said she said Debbie she said I'm so glad you called you need to come home and and I said no I ain't
00:37:40
coming home and she she got real serious I've never heard that tone of voice with
00:37:46
her before but she got real serious and and she said Debbie you don't understand
00:37:51
how important this is you need to come home and I don't know something about the tone of her voice just convinced me
00:37:59
you know maybe there is something that's that's important so so I agreed to go home and I had a friend drop me off
00:38:09
and of course as we you know we pulled up into the neighborhood and you know just that that seemed that I was just
00:38:18
describing of you know police everywhere and and and people standing around and and looking at this house that was you
00:38:25
know there's that yellow crime tape everywhere and you know I thought about a lot you know most people you know you
00:38:33
watch TV you watch movies everybody knows what that yellow tape means it means that you can't go in until the
00:38:39
police are finished processing their evidence and taking their pictures everybody knows what that means
00:38:46
for me over the last 35 years that's that image of yellow tape that just means so much more to me than what
00:38:56
you see on TV it means that I never got to go back in the house you know I tried
00:39:04
the the police stopped me down as soon as I arrived they all just kind of swooped around me and and scooted me off
00:39:10
to to my mom's friends house and sat me down and and and they told me that that there were two bodies in our house and
00:39:18
that they believed one of them was my mother and I thought well duh one of them's my mother who else would it be
00:39:24
you know but kind of the further along they got into that I kept saying you know when when can I go when can I go in
00:39:33
the house I want to I want to go in the house and they they had to get real and paddock with me and say no you can't go
00:39:41
in and I thought you know well you know I just don't have permission no they said you can't go in it's too messy you
00:39:47
can't see it and and that just hit me like a ton of bricks and so really it was of course you know there's always
00:39:56
this unknown of you know what what did it look like what what were those what were those last moments like those are
00:40:06
the questions that haunt me I don't know if that perpetrator was was in my mom Greg's bedroom for 10 minutes or three
00:40:15
hours I don't know but I was wonder about what what they were thinking and feeling and saying and doing during that
00:40:23
time I just can't imagine the house was on toltec Way Goleta in a quiet cul-de-sac on the morning of July 27th
00:40:34
1981 a real estate agent found the bodies of Sheri Domingo and Gregory Sanchez Sanchez had a bullet wound to
00:40:42
his face and multiple blunt-force trauma wounds through his head it appeared that he had given a
00:40:47
very good fight sherry was found facedown on the bed she too had been bludgeoned and later covered with some
00:40:54
bedding a crowbar was believed to be missing from the garage which investigators felt was the murder weapon
00:41:00
they both showed signs of being bound but no ligatures were found the killer had taken them with him the headline in
00:41:09
the Santa Barbara news linked sherry and Gregory's murders with the murders of Robert Offerman and Deborah many 18
00:41:14
months earlier the headline read - found slain in Goleta case similar to one in 79 what no one knew at the time was that
00:41:25
it was actually the sixth attack of the original night stalker his fourth double
00:41:29
murder nine murders in total spending 18 months in Southern California an officer informed to Debbie that dog
00:41:36
footprints were found at the scene and wanted to know if they owned a dog they didn't a woman came forward telling
00:41:43
police that she and her daughter were near Sherry's house around 11:00 p.m. they noticed a man standing on the
00:41:49
pavement behind Sherry's house he was a white male in his 20s or early 30s approximately 5 foot 10 with neatly cut
00:41:56
blonde hair he had a German Shepherd dog with him no arrests were made and the case went cold police looked at the
00:42:05
connections between the two Goleta double murders Bevan still felt there was a link to the east area rapist
00:42:12
especially when the following year the east area rapist made himself known again on October 21st 1982 he called a
00:42:20
survivor from a Sacramento attack that occurred five years earlier in 1977 hi it's me again remember me I'm going to
00:42:31
come over and [ __ ] you again you're going to suck my [ __ ] again as the years passed all of the attacks
00:42:40
in Southern California turned into cold cases with different jurisdictions investigating the different cases the
00:42:46
crimes weren't linked no one knew there was an original Night Stalker yet by the
00:42:54
time 1996 came there had been no new crimes or links to the original Night Stalker or to the east area rapist all
00:43:01
had been quiet it had been four years nine months and seven days since the last attack the murders of sherry
00:43:08
Domingo and Gregory Sanchez it had been 10 years since the first attack of the Asteria rapist in Rancho Cordova it
00:43:17
appeared to be over some believed he was in prison some believed he was dead some
00:43:23
believed he had moved for those investigators like Richard Shelby Carol Daly Jim Bevins ray root
00:43:30
Larry Crompton and a few others deeply affected by the unsolved crimes the thought of the east area rapist rarely
00:43:37
left them many of them were still constantly checking crime reports up and down the state for any sign of him they
00:43:44
knew that serial offenders rarely just stopped there had to be a reason no man of leg works tips arrests undercover
00:43:52
surveillance for private consultants had gotten them any closer to solving the case
00:43:57
the murders committed by the original Nightstalker showed the hallmarks of the crimes committed by the east area rapist
00:44:03
some more than others there was a short canal near by the Goleta attacks in Ventura the Palpa long
00:44:10
corridor was closed near Manuel is home in Irvine there was a large park and a vacant house behind her but as for the
00:44:18
stalking behavior the dig in retreat mo parking far away targeting numerous people in the area with hang-up calls
00:44:24
and break-ins before circling closer towards his chosen victims using fast canals trails and open spaces there
00:44:32
wasn't a lot of evidence of that on the evening of Sunday May 4th 1986 the original Night Stalker did something
00:44:40
different this time he would utilize the geography of an area more so than any of
00:44:45
his previous attacks in Southern California attack 7 also occurred in Irvine Orange County less than 2 miles
00:44:53
from the murder of Manuela wit Yoon five years earlier the house targeted for attack 7 was for sale that's at one
00:45:01
house from the end of a cul-de-sac a row of trees and a hedge separated the house
00:45:06
from a large road just over the road was a long and winding canal a path alongside the canal connected to many
00:45:13
other paths and roads allowing for multiple escape options the geography mimicked many East Area
00:45:19
rapist attacks in Contra Costa and Sacramento counties on May 4th 1986 that had been almost five years since the
00:45:27
last attack the murders of sherry Domingo and Greg Sanchez but that evening a pair of pale eyes were
00:45:33
watching the house in Irvine 18-year old Jenelle Cruz was staying at home on her
00:45:39
own while her mother and stepfather were in Mexico her youngest sister Michelle was away working at Mammoth Ski Resort
00:45:45
Janelle was very close with her sister Michelle Janelle the extrovert and Michelle the introvert Janelle did all
00:45:52
the talking for Michelle and stuck up for her every chance she got Janell was inside with a male friend the
00:45:59
original Nightstalker may have thought they were a couple but they were just good friends
00:46:05
janelle never enjoyed staying home on her own so she had a friend over for company they were hanging out in her
00:46:11
room when she heard some noises the outside janelle took a look out the window but there was nothing there she
00:46:18
thought it was just a cat a little while later they heard another noise it sounded like the gate sunny or possibly
00:46:25
the garage door this time they both had a look out the window but saw nothing Janelle's friend left around 10:45 p.m.
00:46:33
Janelle left the house as well popping out to get something her neighbor heard her return about quarter
00:46:39
past eleven the neighbor recognized the sound of Janelle's car and she heard just one car door shut and fly p.m. the
00:46:48
following day the real-estate agent selling the house had a planned inspection she walked inside and found
00:46:54
Janelle's body the crime scene analysis showed Janelle had been hit in the forehead in the kitchen likely with a
00:47:01
pipe wrench missing from the backyard her wrists and ankles were bound but the ligatures had been removed by the killer
00:47:08
the blow she received in the kitchen incapacitated her enough that the marks from her bindings didn't show a great
00:47:14
deal of struggling she was taken to her bedroom and brutally raped grass from the backyard or the park behind was
00:47:22
located on the bed medium blue colored link was found believed to be from a gag likely a tell but the gag wasn't found
00:47:31
the killer had removed the evidence it was 1986 and word was out the crime scene forensics had taken a huge jump
00:47:39
DNA evidence could now be taken by forensic investigators from a crime scene and used to match to the offender
00:47:45
tennis shoe prints were found outside by the house Janelle's sister Michelle Cruz
00:47:52
spoke to us actually when I heard about Janelle's death it was through my girlfriend who she she called me when I
00:48:04
was working up at the ski resort happened ma'am and she saw you sitting down and I said
00:48:11
so no and she says well you need to be sitting down and I said okay why what's going on and she said your sister was
00:48:18
murdered and I thought that she had said your sister was married so I said what and she said your sister was murdered
00:48:28
and I said murdered and it was really hard to process I don't think I even really processed it I think I kind of
00:48:37
went on I didn't know how to react it was just a very very strange time I walked around the dorm the employee
00:48:44
dorms just kind of in a really strange you know kind of bubble just trying to process what she had told me and it took
00:48:55
a couple of days we were in a snowstorm so it took a couple of days for the vehicles to the snow to thaw out so we
00:49:03
could leave and go back home so it was a really rough couple of days just trying
00:49:08
to hear what she had said and my parents they were in Cancun Mexico I believe the
00:49:16
the police had to call every hotel and track down my mom and my stepfather Alan to us he would hotel they were out let
00:49:25
him know what had happened and my mom she she really was so distraught over it she lost a lot of her hair from the
00:49:33
stress and just a really rough time the initial investigation I remember them taking me into the
00:49:44
Google office room or they asked me a bunch of questions you know who my sister was hanging out with who our
00:49:52
friends are and you know probably something to the fact that you know did I know anybody that who could have
00:50:00
killed her and my answer was no I don't know who and they gave them the names of
00:50:05
our friends and and that was it I mean it wasn't like an interrogation they just asked me some questions and let me
00:50:13
go and I I don't even remember leaving to be honest I just don't remember that just I do remember being in that office
00:50:21
with asking me questions now as far as my mom and my stepfather I don't know what
00:50:26
happened they never told me we never talked about it they I didn't ask they didn't tell me yeah I was just almost
00:50:35
like a close subject for a while because we were all trying to figure out how to
00:50:40
live without Janelle Janelle Cruz went through many of the rough patches other teenagers go through she had recently
00:50:49
returned to her boil and after spending ten months in Utah and the center that provides free academic training for
00:50:55
teenagers and young adults she was getting back into the swing of teenager life in Irvine and was very close to her
00:51:02
youngest sister Michelle their mother felt really confident things were looking up for Janelle she had just
00:51:07
started a part-time job at a local pizza parlor and they had recently taken a family trip to Palm Springs on that trip
00:51:14
Janelle bought a white dress so she twirled around the story dreaming about her wedding day
00:51:20
there were times that we had our friends over and we would sit around and write poems just write out different tones and
00:51:31
this is one column that Janelle wrote how she was about 15 16 years old when she read it I am a bird with a broken
00:51:40
wing my heart is sore but I still sing I lie in my nest way high in a tree wondering is flying best for me I am
00:51:52
unique in a special way I am a dreamer and my thought will always stay I know that someday the time will come when I
00:52:01
shall soar him be so happy forevermore to Nelly sakru's a couple of months after Janelle's murder a man who knew
00:52:13
her confessed to killing her he was a patient in a mental health facility at the time he was arrested and held in the
00:52:20
Orange County Jail for eight months until it was discovered he had provided a false confession his attorney said he
00:52:26
falsely confessed you know emotional problems the men still face charges in connection
00:52:31
with an attack on a former girlfriend which happened the night before Journal's murder however results of
00:52:36
blood and semen tests excluded him from being Janelle's killer never again was any attack linked to the east area
00:52:44
rapist or the original night stalker the east area rapist disappeared after that
00:52:49
last phone call he made to a survivor in 1982 the original night stalker disappeared after the murder of Janelle
00:52:56
Cruz in 1986 the year prior to Janelle's murder serial killer Richard Ramirez was
00:53:05
captured he was known as the night stalker his crime spree through Los Angeles and San Francisco occurred from
00:53:11
1984 to 1985 he was given 13 death sentences but he ended up dying from complications of b-cell lymphoma while
00:53:20
awaiting execution the unknown suspect in the Southern California murders we've covered in this episode became known as
00:53:28
the original night stalker as he was the original stalker of the knife having started his crime spree in 1979 in 1986
00:53:38
when DNA evidence started to be used in crime scene investigations the statute of limitations changed the following
00:53:45
article from the Sacramento Bee explains quote the statute of limitations on rape
00:53:52
in California has changed with the introduction of DNA evidence there is a six-year statute of limitations on
00:53:58
non-consensual sexual battery or rape however there's a slippery slope that because there's an additional one-year
00:54:04
discovery rule which means if the attacker is identified by DNA evidence then the attacker can be prosecuted
00:54:10
within a year of discovery of his or her true identity even if it's past the six-year statute of limitations so in
00:54:18
other words if DNA names an attacker for a rape after more than six years the DA
00:54:23
has a year to initiate prosecution for those who believed that the east area rapist had died they would be proven
00:54:31
wrong sometime in 1991 or 1992 the survivor of attack 7 in Carmichael received the call
00:54:40
you know who this is the line then went dead the survivor had no doubt it was the man who attacked her 15 years
00:54:49
earlier detective Larry Poole began working the case in Orange County back in 1986 at the time he was working hard
00:54:57
to link attack for Keith and Patty Harrington's murder him Dana Point with the two attacks in Irvine attack five
00:55:04
the murder of Manuela woohyun and attack seven the murder of Janel Cruz pull the
00:55:10
pin too many suspects and thought he had the right guy and more than once quote when I took this on I was still
00:55:16
relatively fresh if you will I got excited about people like a ski mask rapist in prison who matched the
00:55:22
description in the first year five or six times I've got really excited in the second year four or five columns in 1994
00:55:32
Paul holes had just been promoted he was deputy sheriff criminalist at Contra Costa County he had been working in
00:55:39
forensics for six years at that stage you heard from Paul holes in part for talking about the east area rapist
00:55:45
verbally staging crime scenes and you heard him discuss the punishment map the sixth grade grant and the General Custer
00:55:51
essay also known as the homework papers he talks to us again here I actually started out as a forensic
00:56:00
scientist and so I was working in a lab I then promoted up to what we called the
00:56:06
deputy of chroma so I became a police officer went to the police academy but also was back in the lab doing the old
00:56:14
serology work doing crime scene investigation and where it was right in 1994 when DNA was first starting to come
00:56:24
into the lab and so I ended up stumbling across this drawer in our library that had these folders that were marked with
00:56:33
the red ei R on him I was like what are these and I opened them up and they were
00:56:37
the Case Files for contra Costa County of the attacks that had occurred there but I didn't know anything about you
00:56:43
know this case at all and then I just coincidentally was on a plane ride with my boss former boss shortly thereafter
00:56:53
and I asked him about it and he was on the original task force back in the 70s and so each launched into this story and
00:57:03
so I decided you know what let me see what I can do to solve this this ei R case you know using this new DNA
00:57:11
technology we're trying to get going and so I ended up tracking down DNA evidence
00:57:16
from three of the cases in Contra Costa and they all matched each other and that's when I called Larry Crompton and
00:57:22
I asked them hey you know I've got this DNA did you have any prime suspects you know at this time all we knew were the
00:57:32
rape cases and they were all passed at to the limitation so sort of like we're not even know but we just want to find
00:57:39
who this guy is that was Michael I just want to identify who this guy was he was
00:57:42
so notorious but he's never going to be prosecuted for this and was very prompt and basically saying you know never had
00:57:51
that real strong suspect but we thought he went down to Santa Barbara and possibly killed somebody down there but
00:57:59
when he had contact at Santa Barbara back in the day they really kind of just said nope we got nothing related to your
00:58:07
series up north and shut the door on him so I decided to Oh Santa Barbara and I called Santa
00:58:14
Barbara and I ran it sort of the same thing no you know we don't have anything like this but there's this city
00:58:20
Irvine you know they're doing some DNA now this 1997 so I I call Irvine and I speak with the detective who I'm sure is
00:58:29
long retired now and he said yeah we've got some DNA in our lab has done some work and I called that lab but
00:58:38
unfortunately in 1997 the Orange County Crime Lab was doing a different DNA technology than my lab was so we
00:58:47
couldn't directly compare in 1997 we just had one marker that was the same but it was like having the same [ __ ] type
00:58:57
you know type A or type B it really wasn't very strong and so I told Orange County I'll be back in touch once we get
00:59:04
caught up with you guys because they're a little bit more advanced well it took us four years to get caught up
00:59:11
but now 2001 I had promoted up and I assigned a DNA analyst to work thank that Pfiesteria rapist extracts and he
00:59:24
did and I told them all Orange County and just see yeah I wasn't expecting anything it was a sort of due diligence
00:59:29
and then he ended up walking into my office and it was a match and so at that moment that was Easter and Rufus was now
00:59:38
known to be the same person as the original night stalker it was now official the yeast area
00:59:46
rapist ended the original night stalker we're the same person when the statute of limitations ran out
00:59:55
on many of the East Area rapist crimes evidence and reports were thrown away apart from some files detectives like
01:00:02
Jim Evans kept the only physical DNA evidence they had on the east area rapist was in three Contra Costa County
01:00:09
crimes the rest are linked by Mo those three pieces of DNA well what matched the DNA found at the crimes of the
01:00:17
original Night Stalker okay so Larry Poole was the lead investigator on the original Night
01:00:24
Stalker cases down in Orange County so I called him up I literally just we agreed
01:00:32
I fed him everything I had on the east area rapist and so this is now 2001 and I thought it's just a matter of time he
01:00:40
has 50 cases in Northern California he's going to catch this guy yet oh and I kind of walked away from the case at
01:00:47
that point and you know of course I'm starting to get more and more heavily involved in the actual investigations of
01:00:55
cold cases and it was in 2009 roughly 2009 and I had now promoted up again I was chief of the lab but I was
01:01:09
really trying to work the old cases and I'm looking at file drawer in my office and all the eastern rapists stuff that I
01:01:15
had I was like you know what that is still unsolved and that's when I've been start I
01:01:21
decided I was going to just investigate that series and solved it that I've been
01:01:26
working on it 24/7 and 365 sets initially the Goleta murders of Robert Offerman and Deborah mani and sherry
01:01:36
Domingo and Gregory Sanchez weren't linked to the original Nightstalker murders the Santa Barbara Sheriff's
01:01:42
Department took around 50 pieces of evidence out of storage relating to the double homicide of Sheri Domingo and
01:01:48
Gregory Sanchez they studied bedding hair and seaman's things they were able to create a DNA profile from a stain on
01:01:56
a piece of bedding the DNA was previously too weak for testing but now with advances in technology it was able
01:02:04
to be tested further that result is what linked their murders to the original Night Stalker Debbie Domingo spoke to us
01:02:12
about that I want to say about 2007 or 2008 I was contacted by Santa Barbara County again and I had always tried to
01:02:25
you know just I would call every once in a while and leave them contact information just in case they needed me
01:02:31
so it was contact by by the Sheriff's Department again by this time I had moved halfway across the country and and
01:02:39
they called me and there was there were two detectives one of them called me and
01:02:44
he said he said oh I can't remember exactly how he put it but basically he said the same thing that the other guys
01:02:53
had said in 2000 he said you know we are we want to let you know that we are actively pursuing your mom's case and
01:03:02
you know just getting that kind of a phone call just it just brings both you know there were so many years that I
01:03:11
would think okay maybe I should pick up the phone and call Santa Barbara but I didn't want to deal with the
01:03:15
discouragement of having somebody say no we don't have anything new you know so I
01:03:20
I really just didn't call very much so this guy called me and I want to say 2007 or 2008 and he said a couple of
01:03:29
really interesting things he said he was working with a partner that the two of them were retired from Santa Barbara
01:03:36
County and that the department had tapped them to come back in full-time to work specifically on cold cases and the
01:03:47
thing that he said that just made me go and just just boggle my mind he said they gave us a list of cold cases that
01:03:55
we could work on and they said pick one when you want to start with and they said immediately he said they looked at
01:04:01
each other and they both went Domingo and Sanchez immediately and he said he said they just there was no question
01:04:10
they felt like it was solvable and they they felt like they could do some good yeah so hearing those words from the
01:04:18
detective after 25 years there's no way to explain just how much hope that gave me and so that guy and I began just this
01:04:30
at this email exchange we we changed emails further I know a year a year and a half and he would
01:04:38
shoot me questions and I would I would send back answers and then I would ask him questions and he would send back
01:04:43
answers and just back and forth and these guys were working really hard the interesting thing about the work that
01:04:49
they did is that instead of just going to a file box and rereading the initial reports they actually went to the
01:04:59
physical evidence and they pulled the bed clothes from the crime scene which initially you know in 1981 they didn't
01:05:10
have the technology to be able to extract DNA samples and and those kinds of things so these guys went back to the
01:05:17
original material and they used new technology they they said they found really degraded samples of DNA but they
01:05:25
were able to extract them and they came up with a match so they they called me in 2009 the community 2009 or 2011 I
01:05:35
can't remember now I've got years mixed up I apologize they called me in 2011 and said they
01:05:44
said they had they had found that match that my mom's case was linked to the rest of the original Night Stalker
01:05:49
crimes which was the the name that had been given to the sky no DNA was available in the double
01:05:58
homicide of Robert Offerman and Deborah Manning their murders have been linked by MO in 2011 while searching for
01:06:06
further evidence the Contra Costa Sheriff's crime lab discovered the homework papers found at the first
01:06:12
danville attack police released these to the public hoping that someone would recognize them possibly the handwriting
01:06:19
or the tone of the sixth-grade rent would spark a memory very pool quo the right person is going to see it then
01:06:27
we're going to get the right call that leads to the suspect these can be found in the show notes as well as our
01:06:34
upcoming magazine on this case while the late-2000s detective Larry Poole had investigated 8,000 suspects by his
01:06:43
killer there was one suspect who was dead that he was so sure of he had the man's body
01:06:48
exhumed only to find that there was no DNA match Larry Poole quote if he's in fact
01:06:56
deceased that does nothing to dissuade me from making a concerted effort to identify him I think about this case
01:07:02
every day and every night I have a composite sketches posted on my bulletin board
01:07:07
I have his DNA profile on my wall there are case binders on my shelf at work and
01:07:12
even next to my bed I want to see this case closed I don't care if I do it or some other agency but I won't rest until
01:07:19
it's solved it's number one on what professional bucket list Larry Poole wasn't the only one who was
01:07:26
certain he had the right suspect only to be proven wrong Michelle Cruz also spoke to us about
01:07:31
this there has been a quite a few different ones Pio person of interest Pio eyes that I have looked into and I
01:07:41
have helped other people with and turns out DNA was not a match so it is an up and down emotional rollercoaster ride
01:07:52
it's really hard because you really feel like somebody could be the killer and then their DNA comes back and it's not
01:07:59
so it's definitely a roller coaster ride full of emotions pull holes also explains absolutely you
01:08:10
know like probably my first suspect I spent two years on I he was somebody who literally disappeared he dropped off the
01:08:22
face of the earth in 2004 he was on the original suspect list from the 1970s he was the railroad worker and Crompton had
01:08:31
even interacted with the guy and then when I started digging into him it was like wow you know this guy really adds
01:08:37
up and terms being in the right locations at the right time and suspicious behaviors and everything else
01:08:42
we need to get this guy's DNA prom was going to find him and it took me two years to find the guy and of course I
01:08:50
just continued to dig on the guy trying to get and I'll figure him out as whether or not he's the guy and he ends
01:08:59
up popping up in Sacramento as a homeless guy using his identity and we got his DNA and he turned out not to be
01:09:08
the east area rapist so that's when I ended up stepping back as I was so sure he was the the offender that I realized
01:09:21
how I looked at the case and one of the things and this is the lesson learned and everybody has done this and they
01:09:28
continue to do this to this day especially be online investigators is if they're following a suspect based
01:09:37
investigation they're identifying somebody how they choose that guy you know it could be because he looks like a
01:09:44
composite because he had a bad personality he beat his wife or fetus girlfriends in Sacramento whatever but
01:09:51
then they make details out of the case that have and the problem with this case is it's so huge we have 56 case files
01:09:59
15,000 pages you can pick and choose details and turn almost anybody into a suspect you can make the case fit and
01:10:08
that's where I decided I had to follow an evidence-based investigation that was after you know doing some research of
01:10:15
where I went wrong and dr. Kim Roz Moe who is a geographic profiler but also is now embedded in the
01:10:23
University of Texas in the school system and as sort of a researcher on on seal offenders etc he has an article on
01:10:33
criminal investigative failures and that's the one thing that he really presses is be evidence-based and so when
01:10:40
I looked at all the evidence in this case of course we got the DNA and we're doing everything we can with the DNA
01:10:46
outside of that the one piece of evidence that I thought was unique enough to limit the population of
01:10:52
potential suspects was this hand-drawn diagram that the offender had dropped back in December of 1978 and so I ended
01:11:02
up focusing in on trying to figure out what is that diagram and trying to ultimately identify who drew it what
01:11:10
type of person would draw it and so that's kind of the investigative path that I've been going down pool halls all
01:11:17
sides back to us about the stolen mementos that is still missing I hope is in and this would be something we would
01:11:24
want to put out there as if you find something that has because he stole multiple driver's licenses from his
01:11:31
victims he took photos of some of these women out of their photo albums you know
01:11:37
if you find a box filled with jewelry items and and collectible coins and driver's license for people you have no
01:11:45
idea who they are if no take it bring it to the attention of law enforcement just
01:11:51
that in and of itself is you know the jewelry I think a lot of the jewelry that he took he took for value purposes
01:12:00
and he didn't necessarily keep some of the he kept but I think there a lot of it was he probably sold at some point
01:12:07
but the driver's license with the victims photographs and names and height and weight and everything else on there
01:12:13
the photographs he took out at the photo albums he absolutely has kept those in June 2016 the Sacramento County
01:12:23
Sheriff's Department issued the following statement the Sacramento County Sheriff's
01:12:28
Department and our allied agencies have continuously been investigating the east
01:12:32
area rapist original Night Stalker series since his beginning in 1976 we want to assure you this investigation
01:12:39
has not ceased and the cases have not been closed in 2011 a working group was created consisting of all involved
01:12:47
agencies from northern and southern California in an effort to better communicate and work together in
01:12:52
identifying this still unknown offender and bring him to justice for so many victims to that end the anniversary date
01:12:59
of the first known assault is approaching the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department along with several
01:13:04
other agencies and with the assistance of the FBI is cleaning a large scale media release on June 15 2016 at that
01:13:14
large scale media release on June 15 to 2016 the FBI released three new composite sketches these three sketches
01:13:23
are the only official ones of the East Area rapist original Nightstalker all previous composites have been renamed
01:13:30
you'll find a link to the current sketches in the show notes they also publicly confirmed 12
01:13:37
homicides confirming the shooting murders of Brian and Katie Maggiore in Rancho Cordova in 1978 were linked again
01:13:45
their murders have been linked on em only not DNA a $50,000 reward was announced for information leading to the
01:13:54
conviction of the east area rapist original nightstalker the new initiative also included a
01:14:00
national database to support law enforcement investigating the crimes and to handle tips and information
01:14:06
the working group mentioned in the Sacramento County Sheriff statement are currently still going and are dedicated
01:14:13
to solving the case it's made up of Northern and Southern Californian detectives retired investigators and
01:14:19
cold-case investigators including Paul holes the FBI has a representative at each meeting the team dedicate their own
01:14:28
time to the investigation following up leads and Damita around once per month they believe that will solve it
01:14:35
Larry Poole continues to follow leads and work with authorities in his spare time
01:14:40
very pullquote you start revisiting things over the years because you're looking for meaning in everything
01:14:46
sometimes you get that meaning sometimes you don't it's one of those cases you want to see solved before you breathe
01:14:53
your last Larry Compton and Richard Shelby have dedicated their lives to solving the case both retired detectives
01:15:01
have written self-published books on their sides of the investigation they are not directly involved with the
01:15:07
current working group but they both keep up the date and are involved in their own way
01:15:12
detective Carol Daly is also retired she spoke to us about her return after almost 40 years to the home of the first
01:15:19
survivor she worked with the survivor is Jane Carson Sandlin who you'll also hear
01:15:25
from later in the episode people that live in the community at that time had never forgotten it out so I went back
01:15:33
out to Jane Carson's house okay because that was the first rate that I worked and I just wanted to see her out and
01:15:41
actually I was there with the film crew from with a Paula Zahn out of New York so I
01:15:49
had gone back to New York for the filming and then they were coming out here because they wanted to film a sort
01:15:55
of different areas and so I met with them at the North Station and we drove over to Jane Carson's house and I have
01:16:04
to tell you it was very very strange looking at her house it just gave me the creeps
01:16:16
it looked like the house had stood still and frozen in time nothing had changed the whole neighborhood around you know
01:16:24
homes were landscaped and it was a nice neighborhood and everybody had updated and done everything nothing had been
01:16:33
touched on that house and as we were standing outside talking with the film crew the gentleman who lived to the
01:16:43
house just to the left as we're facing the house came out and wanted to know he said oh I remember that case he said I
01:16:52
remember this fear in the community and he said I was living in an apartment in the North Area and my wife and I were
01:16:59
both so frightened and we had seen this area on TV and we said oh that would be a nice place to live well unbeknown to
01:17:07
them when they bought their house it happened to be next door where Jane Carson had been a victim and this
01:17:14
gentleman had worked probation at the time and he said I remember he said driving down the street I saw a guy
01:17:22
walking had a ski mask on I turned the car around to go back and stop him because probation officers were peace
01:17:29
officers he said I turned around to try to get him identified and he said from the time I saw him and I turned around I
01:17:38
got back to the spot it was like he had disappeared into thin air he said he was nowhere and it was it
01:17:45
just for me people that lived in the community at that time you know young people growing up now of course you know
01:17:53
they only know maybe stories or some of them have never heard of him but you go back to the people that were initially
01:17:59
at the time and they all had remember the Serie rapist they might have forget about you know all of the other crimes
01:18:08
and murders and the things that happened that they've never forgotten about the east area rapist in the community I went
01:18:14
to the department and read some of the cases again just to refresh my mind on on details and things and I tell you it
01:18:25
gave me an eerie feeling that I probably did not have at the time I was investigating them and maybe because I
01:18:34
and I'm not sure why but I'm Kennedy I came home and I check in double check my doors and the windows at night were very
01:18:45
very safety-conscious so yes there is anybody that lived at that time that hadn't felt you know this
01:18:55
same fierce Michelle McNamara was a journalist working for Los Angeles magazine she became involved in the case
01:19:05
while writing a series of articles for the magazine in 2013 she became so interested that she began her own
01:19:12
investigation into who the offender might be she believed that being labeled the east area rapist the original night
01:19:19
stalker was both too confusing and not catchy enough to grab the attention of the public
01:19:23
she called him the Golden State killer to some this is what he is now known as Michelle tracked down some leads which
01:19:32
she was writing about in a book but on April 21st 2016 she died suddenly at the age of 46
01:19:39
it wasn't until early 2017 that her husband patton oswalt learned from the coroner that she had suffered from an
01:19:46
unknown heart condition that caused pakka jizz in her arteries this condition combined with medication
01:19:52
caused the death patton oswalt revealed on the TV show 48 hours that michelle had just come across
01:19:58
a big break what that big break is Nolan knows we will find out when the book is released
01:20:04
Patton and Michele's researchers are currently working to finish it following the 2016 FBI press conference
01:20:14
Michelle Cruz made a public statement at red I am the sister of Janelle Cruz the
01:20:20
last known victim of the east area rapist original Nightstalker I need to say it has been a horrifying 30 years
01:20:27
since Janelle was brutally raped and murdered in our home in 1996 I was 17 and she was 18 years old it is very hard
01:20:36
for me to describe how this has affected my psyche for a person to pass away is a
01:20:40
sad event but to live with the thought and vision of how my sister was raped and beaten to death and the struggle she
01:20:46
put up in order to fight to stay alive is what really haunts me she suffered my poor sister made phone calls to
01:20:53
friends just before she was killed because she was scared to be home alone this one offender has over 40 rape
01:21:00
victims and has brutally murdered 12 people possibly more plus all of the rape victims and surviving family
01:21:07
members deal with the thought of this murder are still walking free after 40 years he is likely between the ages of
01:21:14
56 and 66 now thus there is every reason to believe he is still alive today after
01:21:22
Jenelle's murder our home was sold for a while we were living with friends out of
01:21:26
our suitcases our family unit was gone and it has never come back what I grew up knowing was no more I lost my
01:21:35
identity and for about 20 years lived in complete fear because of my sister's murder
01:21:40
during those years I've slept with the lights on and I'm mostly never home alone however when I am there is always
01:21:47
something propped in front of the doors of windows for protection recently I've installed surveillance cameras all
01:21:54
around my home and window alarms plus some other things in order to feel safe I shouldn't have to live with fear every
01:22:01
day it is a very lonely feeling that I've succumbed to not many people can relate
01:22:06
having a loved one killed by a serial killer who has been freed for 40 years I am tired I'm tired of being afraid
01:22:14
I'm tired of hiding this is why I am finally reaching out something needs to change and not just for me I am talking
01:22:23
for all the victims and family members who are too tired and afraid to speak out we need more people to get involved
01:22:29
we need more people to help research because 40 years of doing things the same way is not working there are so
01:22:36
many people dedicated to researching this case in order to find the east area rapist
01:22:41
Golden State killer we need to let them help let them help piece together the information you have make the documents
01:22:48
available after 40 extremely long years I think it's time to release all the information I was very happy to see the
01:22:57
recent release of information and the publicity drive by the task force of city county and federal agencies of
01:23:03
which the Sacramento PD was apart this is a great start but does not go far enough unfortunately there is no one
01:23:12
outstanding sketch of the East Area rapist of Golden State killer his description as to height weight and
01:23:17
features are all fairly average this generates tips but not solid leads what some officers here today may not know is
01:23:26
that the east area rapist sent in writings to the police the poem called excitement's crave has been released but
01:23:33
not a copy of the original poem or the envelope it came in the envelope and the actual poem would reveal handwriting or
01:23:40
at least typewriter font the east area rapist sent a letter to the Sacramento City Council there are reports other
01:23:47
letters and poems were sent in all of these can and should be released the release of these items will reveal the
01:23:54
word usage phrase usage and unique vocabulary of the East Area rapist they would show something of his views
01:24:01
opinions and thoughts a family member friend or co-worker may recognize these characteristics this is exactly how the
01:24:09
Unabomber was recognized and turned in by his brother I've made a formal request under the
01:24:15
California Public Records Act to obtain the release of these records I also urge
01:24:20
all law enforcement agencies involved in the case to release all information evidence
01:24:24
files and records keeping them secret only protects the killer I urge residents of the City and County
01:24:32
of Sacramento to write an email or letter to their mayor city council county commission and governor stating
01:24:38
your concern about the case and requesting that all documents be released victim and witness names can be
01:24:43
blacked out for privacy the release of these documents might be the difference between this offender finally being
01:24:49
brought to justice or him continuing to elude capture end statement Jayne Carson
01:24:57
Sela who was the survivor from attack number five in Citrus Heights in October 1976 spoke with us she has gone on to
01:25:05
support other survivors of rape including sitting with women in emergency rooms directly following their
01:25:10
attacks and providing support and guidance when discussing her dedication to the support of other survivors she
01:25:17
said one of the things I tell women that I meet with is to share your story report you know your crime to the police
01:25:32
but but share your story with a friend and just be able to you know to get rid of so much of your anger and your grease
01:25:41
and by sharing it just it just helps you I think heal and we you know he we're never going to forget we're always going
01:25:52
to have those scars physical and emotional scars but you know through the grace of God Debbie and
01:26:04
Michelle and and myself were you know we're alive and it very well Debbie and Michelle could have been home too and
01:26:14
been murdered so we aren't truly blessed we are truly blessed when imagining what
01:26:22
it would be like if the a stereo' rapist original night stalker was finally caught
01:26:26
she said one day we're gonna be in that courtroom and he's going to walk in because where they found him he's going
01:26:37
to walk into that courtroom and can you imagine if one of us had known him what that would be like to thank oh my gosh
01:26:46
she was the guy that worked in the grocery store or he was the guy that sat next to me in class at American River
01:26:55
College or you know just that whole thing of oh my or he was my neighbor because you know even though he has not
01:27:03
committed a crime that we know of since nineteen one 1986 that doesn't mean that
01:27:10
he's you know he's not living in a neighborhood he just has stopped raping for murdering
01:27:19
for whatever reason now of course she could be in jail he could be dead but all we want is we want closure we
01:27:27
want this put to bed we want this part of our our life to be to be over with and so we can go on and not wonder you
01:27:38
know if you're going to be around the next corner or do I have to turn lay out my house alarm on again tonight there
01:27:49
are over 60 attacks that are known 60 different occasions where there is a chance that someone a mother a father a
01:27:56
sister a brother a girlfriend a wife a housemate a co-worker or a friend had the opportunity to notice that someone
01:28:03
in their lives was not around or was acting strangely if someone noticed something they either
01:28:09
feared for their lives or they ignored it hoping it wasn't true hoping that the person close to them wasn't the rapist
01:28:16
and murderer forty years later it would still be true was it someone you knew is
01:28:23
that someone you know now if he's still alive he could be as young as late 50s and luckily no older than 70 why did it
01:28:32
end did he move to your town your stay country do you know it now or did he die taking to the grave the secrets of his
01:28:42
identity and the knowledge of whether there were more victims here are some more words from Debbie Domingo because
01:28:51
you know over the years of heads I've had different dreams about this case I've had I've had different dreams about
01:29:01
the night that my mother was killed I've had dreams about I've had dreams about the courtroom and sitting
01:29:10
face-to-face with him and people asked quite frequently people ask what what would you say to him if you were sitting
01:29:21
face-to-face with him what would you ask him or what would you tell him and there's a there's a huge variety of
01:29:28
things that that kind of popped me into my head and back out again but right now
01:29:35
right now in 2017 what I want to say to him is look out your secrets are gonna come out so you need to look out
01:29:53
everything that you've done all of the all of the horrendous things that you've done to people that can't stay secret
01:30:06
forever the truth is going to come out sometime so you need to get ready if you have information regarding
01:30:21
anything you believe may be linked to this case please contact your local law enforcement or contact the Sacramento
01:30:27
County or Contra Costa Sheriff's Department alternatively there is a phone and email
01:30:32
tip one you can find on the FBI website there is a link in the show notes [Music]
01:30:52
you