Wednesday, April 25, 2018

As it turns out, I'm not the Golden State killer!

Ex-cop DeAngelo
     Late last Thursday, I found a message on my answering machine from the FBI. The next morning, I called and was told that someone had provided an anonymous "tip" according to which I (Roy Bauer) had claimed to be the "Night Stalker" and the "Golden State killer" on a website.
     We need to check out each of these tips, no matter how ridiculous, said the agent.
     I have never made any such claim, of course. And I've never heard of the website.
     Nevertheless, they asked me to come to the office (in Orange) so that I could be "excluded" via DNA. (See In "an FBI zone".) So I did that.
     Crazy, man.
     Crazier still, just five days later (i.e., today!), we get this:

Suspected Golden State killer, a former police officer, arrested on 'needle in the haystack' DNA evidence (LA Times)
     Authorities have arrested a former police officer who is suspected of being one of California’s most prolific serial killers and rapists — the Golden State killer.
     A local and federal task force apprehended the suspect late Tuesday evening, after tying him to the crimes through “surveillance and discarded DNA,” Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones told reporters Wednesday.
     In the 40 years since the Original Night Stalker began his campaign of terror in Sacramento and moved south through the Bay Area and Santa Barbara and Orange counties, he had remained unidentified. Authorities say the attacker, also dubbed the East Area rapist and the Golden State killer, is responsible for 12 killings, 45 rapes and more than 120 residential burglaries from 1976 to 1986.
     The Sacramento County district attorney announced on Wednesday the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., 72, suspected as the Golden State Killer in a case that took four decades to solve. Sacramento County Sheriff's Department
     A 72-year-old Citrus Heights resident, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is being held without bail, according to Sacramento County jail records.
. . .
     The last known crime associated with the Original Night Stalker took place in 1986, but his notoriety persists. In 2004, California voters passed an initiative, bankrolled by the brother of one of his victims, that mandates collection of DNA samples from people convicted — or even arrested — in felony cases.
. . .
     Authorities in 2011 pinpointed DNA evidence from the killer in the 1981 slayings of Cheri Domingo, 35, and Gregory Sanchez, 27. And they matched that evidence with DNA from other crime scenes.
. . .
     …At the time of the crimes he was described as being about 5-foot-9 with blond or auburn hair. He appeared to have military or law enforcement training.
     Before he became known as the Original Night Stalker … the killer was tied to no fewer than 52 sexual assaults in Sacramento County and the Bay Area.
. . .
     In addition to the four people DeAngelo has been charged with killing, Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas told reporters that DeAngelo was responsible for a series of attacks in Orange County, including the 1980 slaying of husband and wife Keith and Patrice Harrington in a Laguna Niguel home....
     Natch, this is a national story and it's all over TV.
     Some of my pals here at the college (IVC) are spinning theories about the "connection" between my curious episode on Friday and today's astounding development.
     "They found an abandoned sample [of DNA] last week!!!!" reports Ms. B "And now this!"
     In the course of checking my DNA, these FBI fellers opened some old file and out drops this mysterious abandoned sample!
     "What's this?!" they exclaimed.


The above video is a product of the "Saddleback College OC News Team."

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...