East Area Rapist/ Original Night Stalker Cold Case

Help Us Catch the East Area Rapist (FBI.gov/2016)
June 15, 2016



Although four decades have passed since a prolific serial rapist and murderer terrorized California communities from Sacramento to Orange County, the FBI and local law enforcement announced a national publicity campaign today—and a significant reward—in the hopes of locating the suspect and finally bringing him to justice.

Between 1976 and 1986, the violent and elusive individual known as the East Area Rapist, and later as the Original Night Stalker and the Golden State Killer, committed 12 homicides, 45 rapes, and more than 120 residential burglaries in multiple California communities. His victims ranged in age from 13 to 41 and included women home alone, women at home with their children, and husbands and wives.

At a press conference today in Sacramento, the FBI and local law enforcement agencies announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer along with a nationwide multimedia campaign to once again bring the case to the public’s attention.

“Regardless of the amount of time that has passed,” said Sgt. Paul Belli, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department detective assigned to the case, “the sheriff’s department never gave up on the investigation. This person ruined a great number of lives, and he should be held accountable.”

...

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/help-us-catch-the-east-area-rapist

More here from article originally published 2013, republished today in LA Magazine:




In the Footsteps of a Killer

Fifty rapes. Ten murders. Two identities. One man. From 1976 to 1986, one of the most violent serial criminals in American history terrorized communities throughout California. He was little known, never caught, and might still be out there. Now a determined investigator, a retired detective, and a group of online obsessives are on the hunt to track him down.

The Northern California detectives on the EAR Task Force had theorized he would snake his way south. They worried he was escalating in violence. “That’s him, I know it,” thought Contra Costa investigator Larry Crompton when he learned of the Goleta murders. The Santa Barbara County sheriff’s office felt differently and was reluctant to make the connection, whether out of disbelief or fear of bad publicity.

Three months after the Goleta murders, in March 1980, there was another double murder, this time in Ventura, of Charlene and Lyman Smith. Keith and Patrice Harrington, who were living in a gated community in Dana Point, were the next victims. Then came Manuela Witthuhn in Irvine. The scenes echoed each other: The females were all slender beauties whose hands were bound behind their backs, and circling each single-story house were tiny star impressions from a pair of size 9 Adidas. The rapist had evolved into a serial killer, and the transformation only seemed to hone his self-discipline. Murder seemed to satiate him more than rape did, and longer periods of time passed between the crimes. Whereas before he seemed to bask in the notoriety, now he took pains to hide any hint of a link between the murders, removing ligatures from the scene, even staging one murder to look like a robbery.

By May 5, 1986, when 18-year-old Janelle Cruz was discovered raped and bludgeoned in her home in Irvine, only the killer and a few alert investigators like Crompton knew that the East Area Rapist was now the worst unidentified violent serial offender in modern American history.

...

http://www.lamag.com/longform/in-the-footsteps-of-a-killer/2/

MOST RECENT:

New information emerges about East Area Rapist (November 03, 2017 10:39 AM)

The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office has released photos and sketches of items believed to be stolen by the East Area Rapist when he terrorized Northern California over a 10-year violent crime spree.

Law enforcers believe the man took a gold Lycoming College class ring with a blue stone, an antique gold ring with a ruby stone, a Foothill High class ring with a blue stone, a Modesto Junior College class ring and a set of china from victims in Carmichael, Rancho Cordova, Sacramento and Concord in the late 1970s.

<snip>

Law enforcement agents working on the case have known about each of the items since the initial attacks, Sgt. Paul Belli of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said, but spent years mining pawn shops and secondhand stores in hopes of identifying the East Area Rapist. The rings and china mark the last of releasable evidence related to the assaults, Belli said.

The last attack connected with the rapist occurred in 1986, though Belli noted he could have struck again under different methods of operation.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article182548131.html#storylink=cpy