TUCSON, ARIZ. (KGUN) — Home invasions—a case unsolved for days, weeks, and eventually years. That’s the story of a California case with lessons that can apply to the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping.
In California the Golden State Killer case began with a series of home invasions and rapes in Sacramento. They brought public fear and media scrutiny. Later investigators determined the rapist had become a serial killer. From the last attack in 1986 it took 32 years to find and arrest a suspect.
We talked with Carol Daly, a retired detective who devoted a lot of her life to the case, about how a high profile, unsolved case can affect a community and how a community should never give up hope.
Joseph James DeAngelo was a weak old man by the time he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of murder and kidnapping. He is in prison now, serving multiple life terms.
He did not take his victims out of their homes.
The law says the way he tied them and took their freedom is kidnapping.
He could not be tried for at least 51 rapes. Too much time had gone by.
DeAngelo was known by a long list of names. As a detective for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department Carol Daly knew him as the East Area Rapist.
She says, “Even years later, the questions, I would go to the grocery store, and the grocery clerk would say, ‘When are you going to solve that case?’”
She understands the challenges of the investigators looking for Nancy Guthrie and whoever took her. She says it can be very frustrating to know you’ve done all you can and you still have not solved the case.
With time, investigators realized DeAngelo was invading homes, raping and killing at far flung locations in California. He became known as the Golden State Killer—still free to rape and kill.
Carol Daly had retired by the time an investigator used new technology on an old evidence sample. As with some of the samples in the Guthrie case, the DNA did not match anyone in the FBI criminal database.
Detectives ran the old sample through a new tool—-a site where people send DNA to help them learn about distant relatives.
The family tree that came out, pointed to DeAngelo. Deputies found him and his home in Sacramento.
For Carol Daly there’s a lesson in DeAngelo’s arrest 32 years after his last known murder: Never give up.
“I don't believe a case should ever go cold. I believe that there will still be tests coming in. This case is still new. This case isn't anywhere near going cold. This case is still having a lot of information that is coming in, and I believe there is still a lot of hope for the results.”
