Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in Ventura County on two counts of murder, according to Sacramento County Jail records. The sheriff’s department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Update 12:37 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.
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. »
SACRAMENTO — A law enforcement official has identified a suspected California serial killer as 77-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. »
