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Major Announcement Expected In “Golden State Killer” Case

Posted at 12:12 PM, Apr 25, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-25 12:12:14-04

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) — The unsolved murder at the heart of a best-selling novel maybe close to wrapping up.

According to KCRA, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office is going to make a "major announcement" Wednesday in the development of the case of the East Area Rapist, who began terrorizing Sacramento County and other cities up and down California in the 1970s.

The East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer, was believed to be responsible for at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and 150 burglaries in multiple Northern California counties.

The case was at the center of the best-selling novel "I’ll be Gone in the Dark" by the late writer Michelle McNamara. The book brought the case back into the limelight.

McNamara died before finishing the novel. Her husband, actor Patton Oswalt, and a co-writer finished the novel. Oswalt has frequently said he believed that McNamara was close to solving the case.

The serial killer was responsible for 36 crimes in Sacramento County and later moved to Southern California, where his DNA was linked to 10 slayings from 1979 to 1986. That’s where he became known as The Original Night Stalker, and a writer later gave him the name The Golden State Killer, the FBI said.

His victims ranged in age from 13 to 41 years old and included not only single women in their homes but also women at home with children and even those whose husbands were with them.

In some cases, the East Area Rapist would get into the home, tie up the woman’s husband and commit the sexual assault or killing right inside the house.

Sources at the Sacramento Bee believe the man has been arrested, some 40 years after his first crime.