Investigator recalls chasing East Area Rapist — and nearly knocking on suspect’s door
Updated 6:30 pm, Thursday, April 26, 2018
Police arrested Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, in connection with crimes attributed to the East Area Rapist, over 30 years since he allegedly committed 12 murders and 45 rapes from 1976 to 1986.
Police arrested Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, in connection with crimes attributed to the East Area Rapist, over 30 years since he allegedly committed 12 murders and 45 rapes from 1976 to 1986.
Joseph DeAngelo has been charged in the 1978 murders of Brian Maggiore and wife Katie Maggiore, shown above. DeAngelo is suspected of being the "East Area Rapist," also known as the "Golden State Killer."
Joseph DeAngelo has been charged in the 1978 murders of Brian Maggiore and wife Katie Maggiore, shown above. DeAngelo is suspected of being the "East Area Rapist," also known as the "Golden State Killer."
An FBI photo showing evidence at the scene of one of the East Area Rapist’s attacks. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on April 25, 2018.
An FBI photo showing evidence at the scene of one of the East Area Rapist’s attacks. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on April 25, 2018.
An FBI photo showing evidence at the scene of one of the East Area Rapist’s attacks. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on April 25, 2018.
An FBI photo showing evidence at the scene of one of the East Area Rapist’s attacks. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on April 25, 2018.
A ring stolen by the East Area Rapist from one of his victims. He was known for taking items of sentimental, rather than monetary, value. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on April 25, 2018.
lessA ring stolen by the East Area Rapist from one of his victims. He was known for taking items of sentimental, rather than monetary, value. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on
... moreThe East Area Rapist often wore ski masks like the ones shown here in evidence at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on April 25, 2018.
lessThe East Area Rapist often wore ski masks like the ones shown here in evidence at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on April 25,
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreA sketch of the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer, sit on display during a news conference at the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department in Sacramento, California, on Wednesday, June 15, 2016.
lessA sketch of the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer, sit on display during a news conference at the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department in Sacramento, California, on Wednesday, June 15,
... more.
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A ring stolen by the East Area Rapist from one of his victims. He was known for taking items of sentimental, rather than monetary, value. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on April 25, 2018.
lessA ring stolen by the East Area Rapist from one of his victims. He was known for taking items of sentimental, rather than monetary, value. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on
... moreAn FBI photo showing evidence at the scene of one of the East Area Rapist’s attacks. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on April 25, 2018.
An FBI photo showing evidence at the scene of one of the East Area Rapist’s attacks. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on April 25, 2018.
An FBI photo showing evidence at the scene of one of the East Area Rapist’s attacks. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on April 25, 2018.
An FBI photo showing evidence at the scene of one of the East Area Rapist’s attacks. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on April 25, 2018.
The East Area Rapist often wore ski masks like the ones shown here in evidence at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on April 25, 2018.
lessThe East Area Rapist often wore ski masks like the ones shown here in evidence at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in connection with the case on April 25,
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged with murder in one off the cases and is suspected to have killed up many more.
lessThe FBI has released these evidence photos from crimes suspected to have been commited by the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer. Citrus Heights residents Joesph DeAngelo has been charged
... moreThe day before his retirement, Paul Holes parked a white Ford Taurus outside the Citrus Heights home of James Joseph DeAngelo.
At that time, neither he nor DeAngelo knew the latter would be arrested at the same house a month later, his DNA and other evidence allegedly connecting him to 12 slayings and 45 rapes in California from 1976 to 1986.
It was the end of March, and Holes — a longtime cold-case investigator for the Contra Costa County district attorney’s office — was a central member of a multiagency team that had narrowed down the list of suspects in the case of the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer, to a handful of men.
The team had taken a novel approach, running crime-scene DNA against consumer genealogical websites in a bid to find the killer or his relatives. Holes had been involved in the case for 24 years, and this was the closest investigators had ever been. Or maybe not.
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DeAngelo was the only man in the small group of suspects Holes visited.
The day before he turned in his department firearm, something brought him to the modest one-story home of the 72-year-old ex-cop and retired grandfather. DeAngelo’s age and other traits seemed to fit, and his past locations appeared to correlate with the series of rapes and murders across California, Holes said.
“At that point, literally, I was just curious,” Holes said by phone Thursday, a day after authorities announced DeAngelo had been arrested and was being charged with murders in multiple counties. “Where is this guy living? At that point, he was just one of several. He’s just a maybe.”
Holes wrestled with whether to knock on the door and ask DeAngelo, “Can I get your DNA?”
But he didn’t. He drove away and retired the next day.
Now, Holes said, he’s glad he sat in his car. There’s no telling what would have happened, and it turned out that knocking on the door wouldn’t be necessary.
Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies began surveilling the home last week and were able to obtain two “surreptitious samples” from DeAngelo, meaning they waited for him to discard something — perhaps a cup or bottle — with his DNA on it, officials said.
The first sample was too weak, Holes said, so investigators got another and tested it, finding a match to the killer’s DNA.
It was an exhilarating peak for Holes in a chase that began in the 1990s, when he worked on the case in the early years of DNA evidence.
“It’s been very frustrating. You have your moments of highs thinking you got the guy and then you crash when the DNA evidence eliminates him,” Holes said. “The frustration just builds. To finally get to the point where you find the right guy, it is a very good feeling.”
The cold case was not only Holes’ most difficult — it was his first. He began looking for the East Area Rapist in 1996.
A year later, DNA evidence definitively linked three Contra Costa County rapes — two in Danville and one in San Ramon — to a serial killer and rapist who had started out in Sacramento County, though detectives had already made the connection based on the suspect’s methods, Holes said.
He then sought to connect the crime spree in Northern California to similar attacks in Southern California. The use of DNA in forensics was in its infancy, and it took four years before investigators verified in 2001 that the rapes and killings were committed by the same person, Holes said.
In 2016, law enforcement officers from around the state formed a task force to hunt for the East Area Rapist.
Holes’ colleagues are now marveling that his dogged work finally paid off. But he declined to describe the critical break in the case — how investigators used the genealogical websites to find DeAngelo.
“Those types of details I’m not at liberty to comment on,” he said. “We were leveraging anything we could.”
Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno