Golden State Killer identified as..

[coubob]

A former California police officer has been identified as the so-called Golden State Killer believed to have committed 12 killings and at least 50 rapes across California in the 1970s and 1980s, authorities said Wednesday.
Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested after investigators matched a discarded DNA sample from his home to evidence collected at some of the crimes, according to law enforcement officials at a news conference outside the crime lab where the key break in the case was uncovered.
DeAngelo was arrested without incident this week in connection with a crime spree that spanned a decade and at least 10 counties throughout California, officials said. His name emerged in connection with the crimes last week.
"When he came out of his residence, we had a team in place that was able to take him into custody. He was very surprised by that," Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said.
DeAngelo, who faces capital murder charges, is being held without bail in Sacramento.
"Very possibly he was committing these crimes during the time he was employed as a peace officer and obviously we'll be looking into weather it was actually on the job," Jone said.
From 1976 to 1986, DeAngelo's alleged crimes sowed fear across the state, where the suspect was also known as the "East Area Rapist" and "the Original Night Stalker."

 

[Sheltie]

My roommate and I were just talking about this case. She's really fascinated by this stuff. I think it's interesting to get into the psych stuff that makes me people commit these kinds of crimes. I'm not into the gore.

Season 2 of Mindhunter is going to focus on the Atlanta child murders. It should be interesting. Wayne Williams was never convicted of murdering any children, only adults.

 

[nivek]

I'm not into the gore.

Neither am I, it's good they caught this guy, honestly from what little I've read about his actions and what his recent neighbors have said about him, if he truly is the guy, then they should probably sentence him to death and carry it out before he naturally dies...

 

[nivek]

"I've got a roast in the oven", is what the Golden State Killer told police when they turned up to arrest him.

 

[coubob]

Police using genealogy website wrongly identified innocent man in nursing home as suspect
Detectives hunting the Golden State Killer used information from genealogy websites that led them to wrongly identify an elderly nursing home patient as a suspect in the case.

An Oregon police officer working at the request of California investigators persuaded a judge to order a 73-year-old man to provide a DNA sample in March 2017, according to newly-released court records.

The man was identified as a suspect after authorities found a rare genetic marker in 30-year-old samples of the killer’s DNA, before searches of a genealogy website led them to one of his relatives.

His daughter said police did not notify her before swabbing her ailing father for DNA from his bed at an Oregon City nursing home.

She did however go on to help investigators eliminate people who could have conceivably been the killer once she understood the situation.

The case of mistaken identity has come to light after the use of DNA data on an ancestry website led to the arrest of former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo outside his house outside Sacramento.

The 72-year-old is accused of being the sadistic attacker who killed 13 people and raped at least 50 women in California between 1974 and 1986.

Handcuffed to a wheelchair, Mr DeAngelo made his first court appearance on Friday after being charged with eight counts of murder.

Appearing dazed, he spoke in a faint voice to acknowledge he was represented by a public defender without entering a plea.

"We have the law to suggest that he is innocent until he's proven guilty and that's what I'm going to ask everyone to remember," Mr DeAngelo's public defender Diane Howard said outside court.

"I feel like he's been tried in the press already."

Investigators were able to make the arrest this week after matching crime-scene DNA with genetic material stored in an online database by a distant relative.

They relied on a website named GEDmatch, a different genealogy service to the once used in the Oregon search and did not seek a warrant for Mr DeAngelo's DNA.

Instead, they waited for him discard items and then swabbed the objects for genetic material, which proved a conclusive match to evidence that had been preserved more than three decades.

Curtis Rogers, co-founder of GEDmatch, said its data had been used without the company’s permission, expressing concern over law enforcement’s use of the site.

DNA was in the infancy of its use as an investigative tool in the mid-1980s when the Golden State Killer, also known as the East Area Rapist, carried out his final murder.

Experts believe as a police officer, Mr DeAngelo would have been aware the of new technique.

Wendell Phillips, a former Sacramento deputy who worked on the case, said police at the time suspected they were chasing either a fellow law enforcement officer or a member of the armed forces due to the methodical and meticulous nature of the crimes.

He revealed officers assigned to the task force were required to submit saliva samples to exclude anyone who shared a genetic trait identified in the attacker’s saliva found in around 15 per cent of the population.

"Obviously, you didn't want the East Area Rapist on the team," Mr Phillips said, "That turned out to be a pretty good concern."
Tom Barnes,The Independent

 

[humanoidlord]

ooopppssss