48 Hours - The Golden State Killer

Episode Date: April 23, 2017

True-crime writer Michelle McNamara was obsessed with finding the man who terrorized California for a decade.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Real people. Real crimes. Real life drama I'm gonna kill you.

I'm gonna kill you. What's fascinating to me about this case is that it is rich with so many clues. And frankly, it should be solved. Michelle McNamara had a passion for true crime. She blogged about unsolved murders and missing persons. She was a beautiful writer, and she was a mom and a wife to a comedian, Patton Oswalt. My wife is ten times smarter than me.

She is thinking and operating on this way elevated level from where I am. She had a mind for the details of true crime the way that other people have for baseball or me for films. She could recall the details of pretty much every late 20th and 21st century crime. It was just in her head. Michelle knew so much about so many different crimes, but there was one case that consumed her, and that was the Golden State Killer. The Golden State Killer is the most prolific serial predator in the nation he attacked across

the state from sacramento down to orange county across 15 different jurisdictions i thought when i first looked into the case it didn't seem real because it got worse and worse the more you looked at it all i know is he raped 50 people and he killed 12. And one of them was your sister. One of them was my sister. He had complete control over this community and he thrived off the media attention. I don't like to go out anymore. I don't go out by myself at all anywhere. Gun sales in the area have risen sharply. Standing up in front of me was this man with a ski mask on holding a large butcher knife. It was sheer terror, frozen in fear kind of feeling. He was the boogeyman. He was the man in the bushes that we didn't know who he was

and we didn't know when he was going to strike again. Michelle was hot on the trail of the Golden State Killer, and she was writing a book about him. That's why I just don't think this is, like, pure sexual sadism. I think there was something else, you know, going on there psychologically. She had such good insight, and I think it's because other investigators had trusted her. They told her things that weren't in some of the original files. She was tenacious about investigating the case.

She thought she was getting real close to finding him, and then she was gone. The night before she died, was she exhausted from all of this? You know, she was really tired. I think she got in like two hours sleep because there was a lot of new developments going on with the case. He was making decisions and doing certain things four decades ago that now I'm Tracy Smith. Tonight on 48 Hours. The Golden State Killer. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty.

Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the

world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was.

Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Oh, Ms. Berman. hours plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. millions of fans. She said I was inconsiderate, condescending, that I looked like a lesbian art teacher. And a voice known to millions of kids. Taste check, spoon down. Good. Too much salt? Good. Yet he would tell you it was his wife, Michelle McNamara, who was the true star of the family, something Patton sensed as soon as they began dating. I've met someone who is so much, so above my punching class in terms of intelligence and wisdom and empathy. I was done for. She took a little bit of convincing. But convince her he did in 2005. It was like oh i this is amazing is that how you

felt like you married up oh my god like basically having a false passport that gets me into you know these amazing countries or so that's that was that's the level that i married on with her patton learned his new bride had some unique interests. You know, Michelle was always a writer. She had published short stories and poetry, but she was also always just fascinated with people and just the messiness of a life. Michelle was captivated by true crime stories, especially cold cases. In 2006, she started the blog True Crime Diary, where she profiled both recent and long-forgotten crimes. When she started that blog and she realized these two pursuits, they just haven't collided yet. And

once they collided, it wasn't a crash, it was a melding. And then it was, you know, she was just off to the races. The pair welcomed daughter Alice in 2009. But even as motherhood took center stage, Michelle hunted for cases and clues. Once everyone was asleep, she was on that laptop. There is a breed of men and women that are just wired to pursue these people and keep going, you know, when other people would have gone, oh, I got to go live my life. Soon, Michelle's online quest brought her face to face with one of the worst villains she'd never heard of. When you hear Zodiac Killer,

you know what it is. You hear Jack the Ripper, you know what it is. You hear Jack the Ripper, you know what it is. Billy Jensen is a true crime journalist in Southern California. You hear East Area Rapist slash Original Night Stalker. Nobody knows what that is. The East Area Rapist, Original Night Stalker, Erons for short, not a very memorable name, but he's one of the most prolific criminals California has ever seen,

responsible for 50 rapes and 12 murders. And to this day, no one knows who he is. She started looking at the devastation that this guy wrought. You're taunting the police, you're taunting the population, and you're never caught. Michelle McNamara had found her nemesis. If one could be said to have a taste in crime, Michelle and my taste in crime were very similar. Paul Haynes is a researcher who worked with Michelle. Michelle called herself a citizen sleuth.

What does that mean? A private citizen who's not in law enforcement and who's not a private investigator, that is drawn into a crime and does their own investigating based on the tools that are available to them. Michelle started hitting the message boards of fellow online sleuths, hunting for everything she could learn about Erons. Over one horrific decade, he'd covered a lot of ground,

starting as a rapist in the Sacramento area in 1976. His MO typically is to break into a house in the middle of the night and confront a sleeping couple by shining a flashlight into the eyes of the female, insisting that she tie up the male. Then, Irons moved to Southern California, where he used the same MO to break in and rape. But now now he'd leave no witnesses. Twelve people would be murdered before the serial rapist and killer stopped in 1986 and seemingly vanished. And she began working on a feature for Los Angeles Magazine. Michelle wrote an article about Irons in 2013.

She had details from bits of information she gleaned online and more explicit details from investigators on the case. The odd acronym Erons was not a name many knew, so Michelle decided to rebrand him, hoping to give him a higher profile. Working with our editor at Los Angeles Magazine, they said, you know what, this Golden State Killer, it shows just the breadth of him having hit Northern California, Southern California, and then sort of right in the middle. With that, Irons became the Golden State Killer, and Michelle would become a book author, signing a deal to write about him. But Michelle was no armchair detective. She wanted to see the places he terrorized up close. The sun and the air look different in different places,

and it changes how you perceive things. Patton says they sacrificed family time so Michelle could travel extensively by herself to retrace the steps of the killer. It's one thing to read it on a piece of paper, but to actually walk it every day and see businesses and houses that were there that are still there, you know, changes the writing. So I would go out of my way to try to give that to her. So you were really the Watson to her homes? Yeah, except Watson was way smarter than me. If I was the Watson to her homes, I was the kind of Watson that just went and got like coffee or,

can you go get me a turkey burger, please? Fine, I'll get a turkey burger. And even I would get that order wrong. The obsession of hunting a serial killer took its toll on Michelle. And I'd go back in the back office and Michelle would be there just like in tears because some road she had gone down had not panned out. And then it's like I now have to start back again from zero. And she did, picking up new promising leads in her hunt for the Golden State Killer. By April 2016, Michelle had been driving herself hard, hoping for a breakthrough.

On the night of the 20th, she was exhausted from it all. I just remember this so clearly saying, you know, tomorrow, just sleep till you wake up. The next day, around mid-morning, Patton checked on Michelle. She was snoring. I remember I was laughing like, oh, she's snoring. And then I brought her, I went and got her an Americano, left it on her bedside. By early afternoon, when Michelle still hadn't gotten up, Patton went to check on her again. when Michelle still hadn't gotten up, Patton went to check on her again. She was dead, and I tried reviving her, and it was just, you know, and then everything after that to me, I remember it as like screaming and vomiting and EMT guys and friends.

Michelle McNamara had died at the age of 46. It was April 21st. Spring's coming. It's all good. And then literally within the space of three hours, just annihilation. Like this world that you're seeing in front of you is just... It's cinders.

It's just all... It's just cinders. It's just all, it's just cinders. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the

surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bolder risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now

by joining Wondery+. It's just the best idea yet. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of ten that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left

deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I want to talk to her so badly. I miss her so much.

And I'm just sad all the time. When Michelle died so suddenly, her husband Patton Oswalt and seven-year-old daughter Alice were devastated. So when Oswalt won an Emmy for writing a variety special just five months later, the moment was bittersweet. I'm not trying to say that this is meaningless, but it really does. Everything seems like the lights have been turned down 50% on everything since she's gone. Patton was still waiting for the L.A. coroner's office to find the cause of Michelle's death, but he'd reached an important decision.

Her book needed to be finished. It had so consumed her life, and it was so much a part of her. I thought she was one of the nicest people I had ever had the opportunity to meet. Larry Crompton spent decades with the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department. Michelle met with him in the hope of tapping into his wealth of knowledge about the monster she was chasing. He would walk through the area just like a normal person so nobody would notice him. Crompton tells the story of a white man of average height and slim athletic build in his

early 20s who stalked his victims before striking, though they never knew it. We'd go in the house when the people weren't there and set that house up and he would leave a window unlocked or a door unlocked so that he could go in. Michelle learned the rapist would also hide tools for his attack. One thing that the rapist would do is leave shoelaces or whatever to tie the people up with. When the rapist returned to attack, he'd come armed with a knife or gun, wearing a ski mask and gloves.

No fingerprints. No fingerprints. No fingerprints. He would blindfold the victims. And after tying them, he would take a towel and tear it up and use that for a blindfold. Within a year, the rapist crisscrossed Northern California, striking 22 times. A few sketches were released, based on brief glimpses by eyewitnesses on the street as he got away every time. That knack for avoiding capture haunted Michelle. He struck so often. He hit so many times. It was so frequent.

Today, Anne-Marie Schubert is the district attorney of Sacramento County, but back in 1976, she was just a local 12-year-old. but back in 1976, she was just a local 12-year-old. I have very vivid memories of what he did to this community because it was so significant. It really changed Sacramento County. Each night, they patrolled the neighborhoods of Sacramento County's east side. It was a national story covered by CBS News.

They call themselves the Ears Patrol. Ears, short for East Area Rapist Surveillance. You have people who are scared. This is a community where they want to lock their doors. Paul Holes is a cold case investigator with the DA's office in Larry Crompton's Old County. And now they're having locksmiths come out to install deadbolts. People were going and buying guns. Michelle had flown to meet Holes as well. That first day, we spent probably six hours in the car between, you know, in the car and getting out and looking at the various scenes that I took her to. To catch him, Michelle had to understand him. For the Golden State Killer, it seemed to be about the notoriety.

He had complete control over this community, and he thrived off that. He thrived off the media attention. I'm really scared. In fact, he took cues from the press. Initially, he'd only attacked women who were alone. But then... The newspaper mentioned that he had never hit a place with a man in the house. He read that.

And that was a challenge to him. That was a challenge, and that's when he started with the men. Immediately, the rapist started targeting couples. And he adjusted his M.O. as he went. After waking the pair, he'd insist the female tie up the male. Then he would bind the female and then reinforce the bindings in the male. He'd lull the couple into thinking he was just there to rob them. He would ask the victims where the money was, where the female's purse was. He would ask the female to accompany him, to show him where it was. As soon as the couple was separated, the rapist would set his true and terrifying plan in motion.

He would retie the female in the living room of the house. He would return to the male and stack dishes on the male's back. He would tell the male, if you move, I'll hear these dishes rattle and I'll kill everything in the house. Immobilized and emasculated, the man was then forced to lie there, listening to the rape occurring a room away. How a man can deal with that, knowing that he could be the reason for his family to die,

and then in his mind, no, but I can't do anything. I have to shut up. I can't save anybody. For him to live with that, very, no, but I can't do anything. I have to shut up. I can't save anybody. For him to live with that, very, very, very difficult. The rapist toyed with his victims, often breaking off mid-attack and wandering into the kitchen. He would go in, he would eat food in the house. He would take things that weren't necessarily worth a lot, but they would be worth something to the individuals. When it was over, the rapist slipped out silently,

leaving his victims bound and blindfolded, afraid to move for hours. One victim remembers all too well. What, is he going to murder us? Is he going to kill us? What's he going to do to us? The identity of the Golden State Killer is a mystery that kept true crime writer and amateur detective Michelle McNamara up all night. I don't think this guy was a homeless drifter type. I mean, I think he was probably a tradesman, something like that.

Patton Oswalt says what drove his wife was the pain the attacker had inflicted on his victims. You know, she was filled with angst for the survivors, for the families. Michelle had spoken to many survivors, women like Jane Carson Sandler. She was the rapist's fifth victim. You're always looking over your left shoulder. Always. Jane's horrifying ordeal began shortly before dawn in October 1976.

Her husband had just left for work, leaving Jane, then a student nurse and Air Force Reserve captain, in their bed. My son, he was three years old, he came and got in bed with me to snuggle. And right after that I heard the garage door close, so I knew my husband was gone. After that, I heard the garage door close, so I knew my husband was gone. And within three minutes, I heard someone running down the hall, and they had a flashlight in their hand. A man wearing a ski mask and black leather gloves burst into her room, holding a large butcher knife. What was going through your head? What's he doing here?

Hopefully he's just going to rob us and leave. So I said, take our money, take whatever you want. And the minute I started to say something, he would say in his clenched teeth, shut up or I will kill you. He then proceeded to take shoelaces and tie our hands, our wrists and our ankles. And then he gagged us and blindfolded us, both of us. Just fear. Fear.

When the intruder untied her ankles, Jane realized he was going to rape her. But Jane was focused on something else. When I went to lean next to my 3-year-old son, he was gone. He was gone. So when the rape took place, I wasn't paying any attention to it because all I was thinking about was, where's my son? After the rape, the attacker kept going

in and out of her bedroom. And at one point, I leaned again, and my son was back next to me. So we put him back. And that was such a relief because I knew he was alive. But the rapist wasn't gone. Jane could hear him in the kitchen, rattling pots and pans. And then he would come back in the bedroom and say,

don't you make a move or I'll come back in here and kill you. Finally, after what seemed to Jane like an eternity, there was silence. I was still afraid to move, but it was getting light outside, and I thought, we've got to get out of here. So I hobbled around the backyard to the gate in the front of the house and then just screamed for a neighbor. Jane and her son survived, but the carefree life her family had known did not.

I was afraid, is he going to come back? Is he still stalking me? You know, does he live down the street? Did you ever think that it would happen to you? Never, ever. My mom always said, she's too old, I was too young, we wouldn't be victims. But the rapist would prove them wrong. In November 1977, 12-year-old Margaret Wardlow would become his 27th and youngest victim.

I woke up to this flashlight in my face. I saw him in a mask. I had my hands tied behind my back. He tied them extremely tight. The attacker left Margaret's room, but she soon heard him upstairs in their kitchen. Margaret knew from newspaper accounts that the rapist would use plates as

an alarm system, placing them on the backs of household members that were not his intended target. I knew if he came into my room, he was going to rape my mom. And if he went into my mom's room, he was going to rape me. And he went into my mom's room. The intruder raped Margaret, but in her youthful defiance, she refused to give him what she thought he really wanted. You didn't want to show him you were scared. I didn't want to show him I was scared. I knew he got off on scaring people and having the control of fear. In fact, the rapist would often call his victims after the attack. Investigators recorded one of his bone-chilling phone calls.

DA Anne-Marie Schubert says he also relished tormenting investigators. It was the thrill and the excitement of taunting them. And I still have the power. And I still have the power, and you haven't caught me. In 1977, investigators held a series of town hall meetings. investigators held a series of town hall meetings. And in one of those meetings, a man stood up and said that if he ever comes to my house, I'll kill him. That he would protect his wife, protect his family.

Just months later, that man and his wife were attacked. The rapist was probably at that meeting, disguised as just another concerned citizen. probably at that meeting disguised as just another concerned citizen. Desperate to capture him, investigators literally chased down thousands of leads. Larry Crompton went through the names of 6,000 paroled rapists. Did you feel like you were constantly going down rabbit holes? Oh, yes. There were names that would come up that really looked good, and you would work them and work them and work them, and nothing.

So you think that he made his escape down this way. But the assailant did leave some intriguing clues. This entire area. Investigator Paul Holes says three sheets of notebook paper may hold the key. The homework evidence was found somewhere generally along in this area. Just lying on the ground somewhere around. Just lying on the ground. Holes believes the suspect dropped the papers as he fled from a rape scene in 1978.

One of the sheets appears to be a homework assignment on General Custer. Another page is full of angry rants about an unnamed teacher. But it's the hand-drawn map that interests Holes the most. And the million-dollar question is, what was the purpose of that diagram? And your answer is? That diagram is a brainstorming session of somebody trying to figure out how to lay out a parcel of land. So this tells me this is somebody that has an association with the development, building, or real estate industry. And Michelle McNamara shared Hull's enthusiasm about that map. You and Michelle both thought this diagram is key. So Michelle and I talked about the diagram a lot.

She understood the importance of the diagram. Whoever he was, the rapes in Northern California stopped shortly after he dropped that note. The attacker disappeared. But the nightmare was about to begin for Southern California. I definitely think there's something about the housing thing that seems very interesting, and there did seem to be a lot of new houses around where he hit, and a lot of houses for sale.

In July 1981, a realtor walked into a home in Santa Barbara County and made a grisly discovery. Inside were the bodies of Sherry Domingo and her boyfriend, Greg Sanchez. Sherry had been bound and bludgeoned. Greg Sanchez had been shot and beaten. I've always had this image in my head of what her last moments were like. The fear, the absolute terror that she had to have been going through. Debbie Domingo, Sherry's daughter, was only 15 at the time. To this day, she lives with that painful image and with regrets. And the last thing I said to her was, why don't you just stay out of my life?

And I carried a lot of guilt for a long time because of the last things that I said to her. Debbie says their relationship had been turbulent in the weeks before the murders. She and I were fighting just like you wouldn't believe. She was doing her best to be a good mom. She had never really dealt with a headstrong teenager. And you were a headstrong teenager. I was. I was pushing the envelope pretty bad. When her mom tried to lay down some house rules, Debbie decided to run away. She'd been gone for about three weeks when she got a call from a neighbor. And she said, Debbie, you need to come home. What were you told at the time about what happened to your mom and Greg? The best answer I ever got was someone broke into the house and killed them.

someone broke into the house and killed them. I resigned myself to never, ever knowing what really happened. Debbie Domingo had no way of knowing that her mother and Greg's murders were the latest in a string of unsolved murders across Southern California. Over the span of a year and a half, three other couples and a woman were killed in their homes, all in a strikingly similar, brutal fashion. In December 1979, Dr. Robert Offerman and his girlfriend Deborah Manning had been murdered in Goleta. In March 1980, Lyman and Charlene Smith had been found dead in Ventura.

Five months later, Keith and Patrice Harrington had been killed in Dana Point. And in February 1981, Manuela Whithune was found bludgeoned to death in Irvine. So you had a hunch that the Southern California homicides were related to the East Area rapists? Yes. When Larry Crompton, who'd investigated the rapes up north, first heard about the murders, he knew almost immediately it was the same suspect. I had no proof, but we looked at the reports and said it is the same. The victims were treated the same way and tied up the same way. Crompton had always suspected the rapist would escalate to murder. We knew that he wanted to kill.

But all he needed was the justification. That came after two couples in a row managed to escape during an attack. The assailant would never let that happen again. The next time he murdered, and that's what he did after that. Even though he was sure that Southern California was now under attack by the same suspect, Crompton couldn't convince the different jurisdictions that their murders were all connected. One of the problems we had back then

is that law enforcement agencies did not work together. And very little information went from one to the other. Michelle McNamara believed the suspect used this to his advantage, moving from county to county, killing without mercy. This was a crazed, horrible psychopath. He was just obviously very, very angry. The killer seemed to take a five-year hiatus after 1981. But in May 1986, he resurfaced again in Irvine

at another house that was for sale. Everybody always wants to know why. You know, why Janelle? Michelle Cruz's sister, 18-year-old Janelle Cruz, was the killer's youngest and last known murder victim. I got a phone call, and it was one of my girlfriends. And she said, your sister was murdered. Michelle learned that Janelle had asked a male friend to keep her company that night.

Maybe she was scared because she felt like maybe somebody was watching her. And he said that they heard noises? They heard noises. She said, well, maybe it's just, you know, a cat outside. And they just went back to talking before he ended up having to leave and go home for the night. That noise that she heard that night is probably accurate. He probably was in the side yard. Larry Montgomery was the lead investigator on Janelle's case back in 1986.

What state was she in? She had been bludgeoned badly on the face. She was on her back in a position that looked like it's possible she had been tied up. It looked like she'd been sexually assaulted. Montgomery's investigation into the murder was intense. Still, it went nowhere. But in 1996, the advent of DNA technology provided a break in the cold case. They were able to find DNA and discovered that the DNA from Janelle Cruz's case matches the DNA in the Whithune case five years earlier. And then they started getting hits on other DNA in Ventura County, Santa Barbara County.

A year later, investigator Paul Holes' testing on the Northern California rape kits connected the rapes to each other. But the most important forensic discovery came in 2001 when the murders were finally connected to the rapes, officially confirming what Larry Crompton had long suspected. What was it like for you to get the confirmation that your hunch was right? It settled a lot in my mind, and I really had a feeling that, yes, now they're going to

catch him. Today, there's a concerted effort among all the jurisdictions to bring the violent rapist and killer to justice. He could go right up against almost this house here that... Erica Hutchcraft from the Orange County DA's Sex Crimes Unit has been working on the case for over a decade. I thought when I first looked into the cases that it was like something you would study in a criminology course. And it was horrifying, but at the same time, you think, oh, I can make a difference and contribute to the solving of the case. Erica had found a kindred spirit in Michelle McNamara.

Michelle had reached out to Erica, and the working moms soon bonded, trading information and debating ideas. It was nice to be able to talk to someone who knew as much about the case and that she could talk the case with me and rattle off things. One of the biggest questions surrounding the case has always been, why did the murders stop after Janelle Cruz was killed? Michelle had a theory.

People slow down in life. You don't have that sort of energy to be prowling. I mean, it's biological and it's emotional. Like, you literally can't be out at 3 a.m., like, running across roofs because you're not 18 anymore. But Erica is not so sure. There could be other victims after Janelle Cruz. There could be other victims after Janelle Cruz if they didn't get DNA evidence and upload it to the system. That's what I am fearful of, and I do go down that avenue still. Like, we go and talk to groups of investigators still, and we say, where's your cold case team? Do you have evidence that can be tested in avial cases? And Erica's been consumed by this case, just like Michelle was. I have never been the same since I started working in these cases.

It's like an obsession, you know, so it's overwhelming at times, but it does change your life. And this case has even changed the law in California. Since 2009, largely due to the efforts of Bruce Harrington, the brother of one of the murder victims, all adults arrested or charged with a felony in California must submit a DNA sample for inclusion in the state database. But even though California currently maintains the third largest DNA database in the world, so far they have had no hits that match the killer. He has somehow even managed to elude technology.

I believe he can be found. I believe that it's time for his reign of terror to end. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. The great tragedy of this case to me is that it's not better known, and frankly, it should be solved. I mean, it just should be. 2016, two months after Michelle McNamara's death, the FBI used the 40th anniversary of the Golden State Killer's first attack to announce a renewed investigation. Today we're going to launch a national campaign to help identify the East Area Rapist, Golden State Killer. And a $50,000 reward.

When the FBI finally got involved, that opened it up. They were getting hundreds of calls a day with names. A lot of them were nothing, but only takes one. All this attention now is being placed on this case. Isn't there a piece of you that says, it's been 40 years? Oh, yes. Why now? Right. Why now? But I'm glad now. And an official list now includes two early homicides attributed to the Golden State Killer. They were walking their dog when somebody confronted them and pursued them into a backyard.

In 1978, Brian and Katie Maggiore were living just outside of Sacramento when they were shot near their home. Though seemingly not premeditated, they're now believed to be his first murder victims. So the question is, was it somebody that Brian Maggiore knew and recognized and saw peeping in a window and confronted? Investigators believe there could be others who recognize him and his distinctive path through California, but time is running out. All the witnesses, all the original investigators, everybody's going to start passing away. It's now or never. They also still believe the DNA profile

will find a match. There is nothing that you can do to change your DNA. It is the greatest tool of identification we've ever had. Thank God they have his DNA. Just as Michelle had tracked down every possible lead... Once she earned my trust, she literally became my investigative partner. Authorities today are pursuing the hundreds of new tips.

It's a needle in a haystack with the needles in there somewhere and it's our job to find it. He's one step ahead and it's not to try to put any type of glamour on the guy, but I truly appreciate the offender that I'm chasing. I think even within the last few months, we've notched closer to him. We're all so dedicated, and we work so much on this case. And we, um, it becomes your life. Sorry. It's okay.

Why do you think it gets to you? Um, because I care. You know, I care. I don't want to ever stop caring. If you stop caring, then what good are you as a detective or a cop or a human being? Michelle was fueled by that same caring. Whether or not the Golden State Killer is still alive, his victims deserve justice. There are hundreds and hundreds of lives

that have been ruined by this guy. I don't care how long it's been. We need an answer. We need to know who he was, who he is. I think the frightening thing about that is that one of us may say, I knew you. I know you. If he's still alive, the Golden State Killer would be in his mid-60s.

Where is he now? Is he in prison in another state where his DNA hasn't been collected? Or is he living quietly among us, a neighbor, maybe with a family of his own? If you had an opportunity to talk to your mom's killer, what would you say? How dare you? I just... It just infuriates me. Those things can't be undone.

There are survivors, there are victims of the Golden State Killer alive who wake up every day going, that guy is walking around free. That's what Michelle thought about all the time for those people. The permanence of loss is still new to Patton Oswalt. But he recognizes that he now has something in common with the family members of the Golden State Killer's many victims. All the stuff she's not going to see Alice do, all the stuff she would have written, and she's not going to write it. I don't know.

I don't know. Nine months after Michelle McNamara passed away, the Los Angeles County coroner released the cause of her death, a combination of powerful prescription drugs along with an undiagnosed heart condition. Do you think that this Golden State killer case affected her health mentally, physically negatively? Yes, I think it did affect her health somewhat negatively. I'm very loathe to call it like that's the thing that killed her, but it wasn't helping, you know.

She just wanted this guy caught. Once she had passed, everything in me was dead, except that was the one spark of, like, life force left in me, of a moving forward life force, is finish her book. Patton says there's no way he could finish writing Michelle's book by himself. It'd be like if Hendrix were trying to finish a guitar piece, and then someone said, I'll do the last bar. It's like, OK, we can see where Hendrix dropped out of there, dude.

That was pretty obvious. He's entrusted Jensen and Haynes to bring it across the finish line. Michelle's work could well be the key to finally identifying the Golden State Killer. One of the things I would like more than anything is to be able to see this guy and show him a picture of Michelle and say, this is the woman that helped catch you. and show him a picture of Michelle and say, this is the woman that helped catch you. I'm optimistic.

I know that it sounds crazy to be optimistic, but I am. In your gut, do you think he'll be caught? In my gut, I think he is going to be caught because of what Michelle did and because of what all the cops did before her. I hope. Those are the two words I say way too much these days. I hope. Michelle McNamara's book is expected to be published in early 2018. The FBI urges anyone with information on the Golden State Killer to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or go to tips.fbi.gov.

If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.