Unseen - California Killer Phones His Victims, Gives Them Dinner Plates “I’ll **** you if you move”, Then Goes Back to Cop Job | The case of Kris, Margaret & Jane | UNSEEN

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

“Do what I say or I’ll kill you and be gone in the dark” It’s just before 6:30 AM on October 5th, 1976 when young mother Jane Carson is blindfolded and attacked with her 3YO son in the house. She is victim #5. 2 months later, 15 YO Kris Pedretti stops playing piano, thinking she heard something in the other room, despite being alone in her house. She is victim #10. A year later, true crime fan Margaret Wardlow studies this serial killer, not knowing that she would become the 27th victim of the man she had read so much about. He's been known under many different names: the Visalia ransacker, the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker or the Golden State Killer, but 44 years later, 200 witnesses stand in front of him to make sure justice is served. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This picture hides the most disturbing secret. It was taken on November 8, 1977 at Miraloma High School. 700 people are gathered to learn about the most dangerous man in Sacramento, who has already attacked 27 people. But what these people don't know is that the police believe the killer is somewhere in this picture. November 3, 1976, one year earlier, another town hall gathering takes place at Del Deo High School. A man stands up in the crowd, claiming he would kill the predator if he ever came to his house.

A few months later, this man is attacked with his wife inside his home. The entire community of Sacramento lives in fear, not knowing when or where the killer will strike next. However, one young girl becomes obsessed with the case, learning everything she can about the attacks. On October 29, 1976, 13-year-old Margaret Wardlow will become the youngest victim of the East Area rapist. and her knowledge of the case will save her life. After last night's attack, there's something new to worry about, their children. A 29-year-old wife was raped while her tied-up husband had to listen. Citizens began buying everything they could think of to protect themselves.

If I had a gun, I definitely would shoot him, and I would not shoot to injure. I would shoot to take care of him. I have a gun, but I still don't feel safe being at home alone. The year is 1976. In the city of Carmichael, California, just outside of Sacramento, 15-year-old Chris Padretti lives a happy life with her parents and her older sister. She spends her days free of care in one of the safest neighborhoods in the state. I was 15. I was a kid. Just a normal kid. Cartwell's in the front yard. And really not a

care in the world. It was not ever even a thought that our world might be unsafe. For now, she's still unaware that, since the month of June, there has been a growing, number of attacks in her area, women being assaulted inside their own homes. October 5th, only three miles away from Chris's house, a woman named Jane Carson is at home with her three-year-old son while her husband is away at work. It was about 6.30 in the morning, my three-year-old son hopped in bed with me for a snuggle. I heard the garage door close, and I knew my husband had just left for work. I saw a flashlight shining down the hall, and I thought, now that's odd, and I

screamed out to my husband, what have you forgotten? There was no answer. The bedroom door opens. A man, wearing a ski mask and holding a butcher knife, walks towards them, blinding them with the flashlight. 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. The man proceeds to tie up both Jane and her son, by the wrists and ankles with shoelaces. Then he gags and blindfolds them both. After ransacking the house, the man forces himself on Jane and spends the next few hours taunting her and her child. When the police are called to the scene, the man is long gone. Carol Daly is a detective put on Jane's case by the sheriff's department. Maybe something that the man said or something that he did to you or something that you recall hearing.

He was a pro at making sure nobody was going to know who he was. My hands were tied and I was blindfolded and my child was with me. It was absolutely an obsession to be able to find out who this rapist was. Everybody was a suspect. Why the police can't catch the rapist and worried about their own homes being violated. They call him the East Area rapist. He hits homes in the same streets, same neighborhoods, sometimes just a few houses away from a previous victim.

No one in Sacramento feels safe, but 15-year-old Chris Padretti has no idea. I certainly didn't read the newspaper. and my parents didn't discuss it, so I didn't have any clue that there was danger in our community. December 18, 1976, only two months after the attack on Jane Carson and her son, Chris is at home, alone.

That night, my parents went to a Christmas party. I went to play the piano. I heard a noise, and I stopped playing, it listened, and it was gone. And all of a sudden, there was a knife at my throat, and he pressed it hard and said I wrote a little song to remind you Choice Hotels gets you more of the experiences

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Make a sound and I will kill you. I froze. The brain stopped thinking at that point. I mean, I just went straight into survival mode. Chris is blindfolded and gagged. Her wrists are bound. The man forces her out to the backyard

where he cuts off her clothes and leaves her there. She can hear him inside the house, cussing and ransacking. And all she can do is wait. At that age, I didn't know what I was waiting for. So then he came back. took me into the house and into my parents' bedroom where he raped me. I didn't know about rape. I certainly didn't know about sex.

What he did to me, what he took from me, I can't ever get it back. Just like he did to all the victims before Chris, the man taunts her, taking his time, never leaving. So I would just, like, move my arm, and he was right there. He was right, like, perched right next to me. and told me, do that again. Today, it'll be your last day.

After more than an hour, Chris is exhausted, tired of being afraid. She doesn't care what happens to her anymore, but she can't continue to sit there and do nothing. She rubs her blindfold off and manages to get up with her hands tied. Thankfully, the man is gone. When the police arrive, Chris is taken to the sheriff's office for a physical exam and for further questioning. The 15-year-old girl is victim number 10. We were told the next day from my dad to never talk about it. It was such a strong order.

My sister and I talked about it for the first time when I was 58 years old. The young victim now lives in constant fear. Every man she comes across in the street could very well be the man who assaulted her. She knows there's going to be another attack. It's no longer a matter of if. It's a matter of when. When the news channels cover the next victim story, Chris watches in horror. There was a news report.

He told the female victim, in effect, that if he saw anything in the newspapers or on television or heard on the radio, anything about this latest attack, he would kill two people tonight. I knew I was going to be killed that night. And not, I thought, I knew. My sister and I, we just stayed awake all night, waiting. By late fall, when the East Area rapist began claiming two and three victims a month, citizens began buying everything they could think of to protect themselves. Hardware stores didn't have locks on the shelves anymore.

Guns were flying off the shelves. March 8, 1977, three months after Chris was assaulted, the count is up to 15 victims, but still, the cops have no leads. The man is highly efficient in leaving no. trace behind. He has a strong understanding of the police's reaction time and he knows how to evade detection. He knew everything that need to be known about law enforcement. But his MO is always the same. In a news article, they described that the East Area rapist has never hit a house with a man inside. Right after the article is published, the MO changes. March 18th, a couple

becomes the target. A 29-year-old wife was raped while her tied up husband had to live. He raped the 29-year-old housewife near the Ignacio Valley Shopping Center at 5.30 this morning. Her husband was tied up nearby and had to listen. After tying the couple up, he puts glassware and plates on the man's back, threatening him that if he moves, the man will hear him and kill his wife. The sheriff decided that we would hold community forums. I had no idea there were going to be several hundred people that would show up.

If we have a gun, could we shoot him? Knowing what I know about this man, if I had a gun, I definitely would shoot him. And I would not shoot to injure, I would shoot to take care of him. 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. May 17th, only a few weeks after that town hall meeting, the man is attacked at his house with his wife. It is likely the East Area Rapist was in that town meeting, disguised as a concerned citizen, and he took that outburst as a challenge.

I have a gun, but I still don't feel safe being, you know, at home alone. You're always looking over your left shoulder, always. I was afraid, is he going to come back? Is he still stalking me? You know, as he lived down the street? November 1977, on La Riviera Drive in Sacramento, 13-year-old Margaret Wardlow lives with her loving mother. She, too, is worried about the East Area rapist,

but she's not like any average girl. She collects every piece of information she can put her hands on about this individual. I was a reader of everything I could get my hands on that had to do with this individual. Like, what was making this guy tick? Why was he doing this? He really got off on power and control through fear. The fear in his victims is how he really got pleasure from what I could understand from everything I'd read. My mom always said, she's too old. I was too young. We wouldn't be victim.

Although her mother is probably worried herself. Her words reassure Margaret well enough. As the attacks become more and more violent, one thought troubles the investigators more than any other. We knew he was ready to kill. We were afraid our next phone call was going to be to a homicide scene instead of a rape scene. November 10, 1977.

It was a school night. I was awoken about 2.30 in the morning with a flashlight in my face. I saw him in a mask, had my hands tied behind my back. Alone in her room, Margaret is aware that her mother is also probably tied up. As she hears a man walk into the kitchen and rattle with plates, she understands what's about to happen. 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.

A calming voice inside of me that says, you know, you're going to get rape. This is what's going to happen. But you're going to survive. You're going to get through this. it's gonna be okay. While aware of what the man intends to do to her, she remembers one specific detail about him. He thrives off of fear. Margaret intends to use that against him.

I didn't want to show him I was scared. He asked in a very harsh whisper like, she want to die. Tell me to kill your mother. I just told him I don't care. That was my way of telling him, you mean nothing to me. I'm not afraid of you. After last night's attack, there's something new to worry about. their children.

Detective Carol Daly believes Margaret's defiance is what kept her alive. Margaret was probably the strongest young victim I have ever talked to. The count is now at 27. And still, nobody even knows what he looks like. No one knows where or when he'll strike again. There was no stone left unturned. After working 27 of those cases, there wasn't a night went by that I didn't close my eyes and think. close my eyes and think about what those victims went through.

It's October 1979. No one knows why, but it seems the rampage has stopped. No one in Sacramento knows if it will last. Some victims know too well. His reign of terror is not over yet. The predator has been calling victims for months, even years after their attack, taunting them on the phone.

While Sacramento breathes a sigh of relief, a new terror emerges in the Los Angeles area. A serial killer is on the loose. killing couples inside their homes. No one connects the crimes to the East Area rapist because there's little information shared between counties. They now call him the original Nightstalker, a name coined before the coming of Richard Ramirez in 1984. December 30, 1979, Dr. Robert Offerman and his girlfriend, Alexandra Manning, are murdered in Goleta. March 13th, 1980, Lyman and Charlene Smith are killed in Ventura.

August 19th, Keith and Patrice Harrington in Dana Point. February 5th, 1981. Manuel O'Toon in Irvine It's July 1981. A realtor walks into a home in Santa Barbara County and makes a grisly discovery. Sherry Domingo and Greg Sanchez are found dead. Sherry has been bound and bludgeoned. Greg has been shot and beaten.

For five years, this becomes the last known attack from the original Nightstalker. until May 4th, 1986, when Janelle Cruz is found murdered, becoming the youngest victim of the serial killer. It's 1994, eight years after the last attack. I thought he was dead, and all these years I just found a way to deny it. Paul Holes, a cold case investigator, stumbles upon case files with the title East Area Rapist on them. A serial predator, Holes has never even heard of, as he reads through huge stacks of evidence, and papers, referring back to 1979 in Sacramento, Detective Holes is hooked. With the coming of new DNA technology, he is hopeful that he can solve this case quickly.

But his first real discovery happens in 2001. The samples collected in Sacramento matched the ones from Los Angeles. Finally, Detective Holes can say with confidence that the original Nightstalker is in fact the same person as the East Area rapist. But even with this new information, Detective Holes is underwent. able to find a match. He had never been convicted of a crime that qualified him to be compelled to give his DNA to be put into a database. During his investigation, Detective Hulse gets a call from an unexpected ally, Michelle

McNamara, who has been investigating the case just as obsessively as he has. More than just an author, she has made it her goal to bring the predator to justice. She even coined the new moniker, the Golden State Killer. 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... Police consider her a part of the investigation due to her incredible instinct and valuable insights into the mind of the killer. She thought she was getting real close to finding him. I'm optimistic. I know that it sounds great to be optimistic, but I am.

After spending more than six years retracing the steps of a killer, Michelle is exhausted and the obsession has taken its toll. April 21st, 2016. She passed away from an undiagnosed heart condition. Two months after her death, a countrywide initiative is launched to hunt down the Golden State Killer. The killer has evaded police and FBI for over 40 years. If this case were to ever be solved, it needs to be now. All the witnesses, all the original investigators, everybody's going to start passing away. It's now or never. April 2018, Paul Holes gets a crazy idea.

Upload the DNA taken from the Golden State Killer's crime scenes onto an ancestry website. Within a day, I had the list of potential relatives to the Golden State Killer out of Jenmage. One name comes up, Joseph DiAngelo, a retired cop living in Citrus Heights just outside of Sacramento and only seven miles away from where Chris was attacked. But in order to be sure, Paul Holes needs a sample from the actual suspect. After secretly watching DeAngelo for days, police take a used tissue from a garbage bin and test it for a definitive DNA match. it comes back positive.

There is no question that Joseph DiAngelo is the Golden State Killer. Police in California believe they've cracked a 44-year-old serial murder case. Law enforcement now identifying 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer. While looking into DeAngelo's background, it becomes clear why he was never caught. In 1973, he was hired as a cop in Exeter. He would then investigate his own crime scenes and destroy or even fabricate evidence. He thrived off the media attention and the fear he saw spreading in his community. It is likely DeAngela was at many town hall gatherings, like the one in this picture, to relish in his own work.

The answer has always been in Sacramento. I was in shock. 42 years later, all those things I had not dealt with, it was time to deal with them. Carol Daly was the first one to be here to support me. I don't know if I could have done that all by myself. I called my sister, and that is when I said, Mom and Dad aren't here. Robin, we can talk about this now. The trial of the Golden State Killer is highly publicized.

Everyone in the country is watching, as the man who terrified the state for over a decade, is finally brought to justice. It's in thousands of hours of sleepless nights between investigators and the victims and the families and the community. It's August 18, 2020. As the trial comes to a close, victims are allowed to share a state. The moments are charged with emotions as one by one, they each read out their powerful message to DeAngelo himself. In the early morning of July 17th, 1976, my life was changed forever. I was 15 years old.

He stole my innocence, my security. DeAngelo, I want you to look at me, and I want you to remember what I have to say. It was my one and only opportunity to feel. Face him. Your secrets have been exposed. Your double life is over. You will forever be known as a repulsive coward who hid behind a mask of evil. It brings me great satisfaction to see you in your assigned orange jumpsuit,

powerless and handcuffed in all aspects of your already miserable life. August 21st, because DiAngelo made a deal, he admits to 13 counts of murder and 13 counts of kidnapping with robbery. Murder in the first degree, how do you plead? To take the death penalty off the table, he also admits to 160 uncharged crimes, including dozens of rapes. Jane Doe 11, October 13, 1978. You admit or deny, sir?

I admit. But before closing the trial, the survivors all get one last opportunity to humiliate the man who haunted their nightmares for over four decades. It was when they read the comment when all of us just started laughing. at him. Jane Doe No. 20 reported that he had a small penis, the fact that was consistently reported by the majority of the sexual assault victim. If that did not bring him some humiliation, I don't know what would.

That is why we were laughing. Mr. DeAngelo will spend the rest of his natural life and ultimately meet his death behind the walls of the state penitentiary. I'm so glad it's over. I mean, it is such a relief. to finally after all this time know that he's behind bars and that's where he belongs. Oh, I was just so happy. I haven't been able to wipe this smile off my face. I was able to face him. I could now begin to leave the dark part behind me and start moving towards the light. The survivors really created a network for each other.

Chris built a support group for other survivors. It became a network for families and friends. Mostly what I would like people to take away from this is that they can be free and they can speak. She says each person is kept in a cage created by trauma, but the key to open it is in their pocket. We're so terrified to pick up the key and walk out that we remain in this self-imprisonment. The key is right there to open up this prison door. All you got to do is use it.