SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on a serial killing and rape case in California (all times local):
10:20 p.m.
The man charged with being the Golden State Killer, who killed a dozen people and raped dozens of women in California decades ago, worked quietly for years in a supermarket warehouse.
Save Mart spokeswoman Victoria Castro says Joseph DeAngelo worked at the distribution center in Roseville near Sacramento for 27 years before retiring last year.
Castro says none of his workplace actions would have led the company to suspect him of a link to the crimes.
DeAngelo, who’s 72, was taken into custody Tuesday as he left his Sacramento-area home.
Authorities say they suspect he’s the man who terrorized people across the state with killings, rapes and burglaries in the 1970s and 1980s.
So far, he’s been charged with eight murders.
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6:15 p.m.
A California sheriff says a former police officer accused of being a serial killer and rapist was taken by surprise when deputies swooped in and arrested him as he stepped out of his home.
Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said deputies planned to arrest Joseph DeAngelo when he left his home on Tuesday rather than burst in or knock on the door of the suburban home.
Jones said DeAngelo appeared surprised that he was being arrested in decades-old crimes and appeared to briefly contemplate some sort of plan.
Jones said DeAngelo then told deputies he had a roast in the oven.
Jones said DeAngelo was taken into custody without incident.
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This item has been corrected to show the sheriff’s first name is Scott, not Matt.
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5:30 p.m.
A man accused of committing serial killings and rapes in the 1970s and ’80s in California has been charged with four more counts of murder.
Orange County prosecutors said Wednesday that Joseph James DeAngelo, a 72-year-old former police officer, was charged in the 1980 killings of Keith and Patrice Harrington in Dana Point.
He’s also charged with raping and killing 28-year-old Manuela Witthuhn in 1981 and 18-year-old Janelle Cruz in 1986.
Police have said they believe DeAngelo is the so-called Golden State Killer who is suspected of committing at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across California.
DeAngelo was taken into custody Tuesday as he left his Sacramento-area home.
He’s been charged with eight murders.
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3:50 p.m.
Comedian Patton Oswalt is crediting his late wife for her work in pursuit of the so-called Golden State Killer.
In an Instagram video on Wednesday, Oswalt says: “You did it, Michelle.”
Michelle McNamara had made it her mission to find the person responsible for at least 12 murders and 50 rapes throughout California in the 1970s and 80s.
McNamara died in her sleep at the age of 46 in April 2016 before she could finish the book she was writing about the case.
Oswalt helped finish the book and it became a No. 1 New York Times best-seller.
On Wednesday, authorities said a DNA match led them to arrest Joseph James DeAngelo, a 72-year-old former police officer, as a suspect.
Police say the book had no information that “directly led to the apprehension.”
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3:40 p.m.
Neighbors say a man who authorities suspect of being a serial killer in the 1970s and ’80s was prone to angry, profanity-filled outbursts if he couldn’t find his keys or something else set him off.
Natalia Bedes-Correnti said Wednesday that Joseph James DeAngelo never yelled at people but would be on “his driveway yelling and screaming, looking for his keys.”
Kevin Tapia, now 36, said when he was a teenager, DeAngelo falsely accused him of throwing things over their shared fence, prompting a heated exchange between DeAngelo and Tapia’s father.
Tapia says DeAngelo was a “weird guy” and kept to himself.
DeAngelo has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the 1980 killings of a couple.
An attacker known as the Golden State Killer or East Area Rapist is accused of at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across California.
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1:25 p.m.
California authorities say they studied the behavior of a man they suspect of being a serial killer in the 1970s and ’80s and surprised him with arrest.
Sacramento County Scott Jones told reporters that Joseph James DeAngelo was taken into custody without incident Wednesday as he left his Sacramento-area home. He was a former police officer in the city of Auburn.
Jones said DeAngelo also was an officer in Exeter, in Southern California, from 1973 to 1976 “around the time of the Visalia Ransacker cases.” That serial criminal was tied to burglaries and one killing.
Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert says DeAngelo’s name hadn’t been on authorities’ radar before last week in connection with the “East Area Rapist” case.
That serial killer is tied to at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across California.
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12:55 p.m.
A family member of a couple who were victims of a California serial killer decades ago said the arrest of a suspect has brought closure.
Bruce Harrington, whose brother and sister-in-law were killed in 1980 in Orange County, told reporters Wednesday that it’s time for victims’ families to grieve and “bring closure to the anguish that we all suffered for the last 40 odd years.”
He cheered the work of law enforcement, who said they arrested Joseph James DeAngelo on Wednesday after DNA helped solve the case.
Prosecutors say Harrington’s brother, 24-year-old Keith Harrington and his wife, 27-year-old Patrice Harrington, were killed in 1980 in their home.
DeAngelo has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the 1980 killings of a couple in Ventura County.
An attacker who became known as the “East Area Rapist” is accused of at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across California.
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12:45 p.m.
California authorities say a man they suspect of being a serial killer tied to dozens of slayings and sexual assaults in the 1970s and ’80s has been charged with murder.
Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten told reporters Wednesday that his office charged Joseph James DeAngelo with two counts of first-degree murder in the 1980 killings of a couple.
Totten says prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the former police officer.
Authorities in Sacramento County also have arrested DeAngelo on suspicion of murder in the slayings of married couple Brian and Katie Maggiore in 1978.
Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert says DNA helped solve the case.
The attacker who became known as the “East Area Rapist” is accused of at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across the state.
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12:35 p.m.
California authorities say DNA in two 1978 killings in Sacramento led to the arrest of a man suspected of being a serial killer tied to dozens of slayings and sexual assaults in the 1970s and ’80s.
Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert told reporters Wednesday that the DNA helped solve the case in the last six days.
She said the “answer was always going to be in the DNA” and the connection came in the slayings of Brian and Katie Maggiore.
Authorities say a serial killer committed at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across the state. The attacker became known as the “East Area Rapist.”
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12:25 p.m.
California authorities say the arrest of a suspected California serial killer who’s accused of dozens of slayings and sexual assaults in the 1970s and ’80s comes after tireless work.
Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert told reporters Wednesday that dozens of people committed their professional lives to the search and spent hundreds of hours seeking “justice for these victims and their families.”
Authorities say a serial killer committed at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across the state. The attacker became known as the “East Area Rapist.”
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11:30 a.m.
A law enforcement official has identified a suspected California serial killer as 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer.
The official confirmed the identity on condition of anonymity before an official news conference planned for noon Wednesday.
Sacramento County jail records show DeAngelo was arrested overnight on suspicion of two counts of murder cited in a Ventura County warrant.
The FBI says it has a team gathering evidence at a Sacramento-area home linked to DeAngelo.
Authorities say a serial killer committed at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across the state in the 1970s and 1980s.
The attacker became known as the “East Area Rapist.”
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This story has been corrected to say DeAngelo’s age is 72, not 77.
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11 a.m.
A victim of a notorious Northern California serial killer and rapist says she’s overjoyed after learning that police believe they’ve arrested the man responsible.
Jane Carson-Sandler says she received an email Wednesday from a retired detective who worked on the case telling her they identified the man and have him in custody.
She says she’s ecstatic to have closure and to know her attacker is in jail.
Carson-Sandler, who now lives near Hilton Head, South Carolina, was one of dozens of women raped by an elusive serial killer police say killed at least 12 people.
She was attacked in her Citrus Heights, California, home in 1976. She and her three-year-old son were snuggled in bed together one morning after her husband left for work when the man broke into her house.
She says she hopes she’ll have the opportunity to face her attacker in person. She says she has a lot of questions for him.
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9 a.m.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office plans to make a ’major announcement” in the case of an elusive serial killer they say committed at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across California in the 1970s and 1980s.
District Attorney’s spokeswoman Shelly Orio says a news conference will be held Wednesday afternoon in Sacramento to make “a major announcement.”
FBI and California officials in 2016 renewed their search for the suspect dubbed the East Area Rapist and announced a $50,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. He’s linked to more than 175 crimes in all between 1976 and 1986.
A woman who was sexually assaulted by a man believed to be the East Area Rapist in 1976 and now lives in South Carolina tells The Island Packet newspaper Wednesday that she has been contacted by two detectives about an arrest.
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This story has been corrected to say DeAngelo’s age is 72, not 77.
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