The Golden State Killer
The Golden State Killer dodged the law and order for decades until DNA technology identified him in 2018. His crimes included stalking, rape, and murder. Forensic genealogy breakthroughs led to his arrest, bringing justice to victims.
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This is the story of Joseph De Angelo aka The Phantom of California, known to have one of the most captivating capture tales. For decades, Joseph De Angelo had operated under the belief that he had outsmarted the system, skillfully evading capture. Yet, in an ironic twist, his DNA was what ended up being his worst nemesis.
In 2018, a team of six investigators finally succeeded in unravelling the identity of the night stalker, that too within four and a half months, with a distinctive approach.
The Golden State killer's M.O. included stalking his targets, familiarising himself with their patterns and breaking into their residence through windows and balconies; whilst making sure to keep no fingerprints around. Couples were his primary targets, with him sexually exploiting the female victim whilst tying up the male and forcing him to witness the scene. Furthermore, he would psychologically torture his victims, instilling fear in them about his return. ‘Visalia Ransacker’ and 'Diamond Knot Killer' were some of his other most prominent aliases. However, by mid-1980, the terror abruptly stopped, leaving behind approximately 50 rape and 12 murder victims and over 100 burglaries.
The Golden State Killer’s identity was shrouded in mystery until 2018 when everything changed. The core of cracking the Golden State Killer case was rather a silent one, awaiting technology to catch up to its potential.
A picture of the golden state killer around the time period of the countless murders, rapes and burglaries. He was in active duty during two out of his three known and separate crime sprees, hiding in plain sight.
For years, the DNA left at crime scenes felt like a prop rather than a clue. But by 2018, futuristic advancements in DNA technology changed the game. Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs)- These tiny but significant variations in our genetic code are what distinguish us from everyone else and are the foundation of forensic genealogy. SNPs trace even distant relatives, people who share just a shred. (even 1%) of the same DNA as the suspect.
The investigators uploaded the DNA from a crime scene to a public genealogy website called GEDmatch, which allows people to search for relatives who have submitted their genetic profiles publicly. They used a method called ‘triangulation’. They identified common ancestors and looked through their generations until narrowing it down to 5 suspects. After eliminating other possibilities, former police officer Joseph De Angelo was the prime suspect. They covertly picked up items he discarded to obtain his DNA and bingo, the once seemingly impossible cold case turned into an astonishing reality. With this breakthrough for the forensic department, they were making history. Thanks to this new strategic DNA analysis, gradually but steadily the victims and their families obtained justice they had long been denied.
Police Sketches
To this day, Joseph De Angelo’s case serves as a mnemonic of how forensic technology advancements possess the ability to resurface centuries-old past, so much so that even the phantom in the dark did not make it.