| Background information | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | The East Area Rapist |
| Killings | |
| Number of victims: | 10 |
| Span of killings | December 30, 1979–May 4, 1986 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | California |
| Date apprehended | Unapprehended |
The Original Night Stalker is the moniker for an unidentified serial killer and rapist who murdered at least ten people in Southern California from 1979 through 1986[1] and sexually assaulted at least fifty women in Northern California from June 1976 to July 1979.[1] However, the connection to the Northern California assaults was not made until 2001, until which time the perpetrator was dubbed as The East Area Rapist.
The Original Night Stalker/The East Area Rapist may be considered one of the worst and most prolific "unapprehended" serial offenders in history. So far in the investigation, every named or investigated suspect has been cleared through DNA, alibi or other investigative means and methods.[2]
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This case, along with that of the Zodiac Killer, remains one of the most prominent and mysterious unsolved serial crimes in American history. Some California law enforcement authorities estimate his combined total number of victims at well over 50, including his rape victims in Sacramento County and Contra Costa County, and his rape and murder victims in Goleta, Ventura, Dana Point, and Irvine, California.[3][4] Additionally, some law enforcement authorities have attempted to link an additional 94 burglaries and a further murder, in Visalia, California, to the Original Night Stalker.
The perpetrator's modus operandi was to stalk middle class neighborhoods for victims who lived in single story homes, then commit hot prowl burglaries. Early in his spree, the criminal sought out women alone by themselves, but later partially changed focus towards couples. During the time the perpetrator was known as the "East Area Rapist" his victims were left alive following the attack. Later the perpetrator began killing his victims and he became known as the "Original Night Stalker".
Typically he stealthily entered their living space late at night, and then took control with a handgun in a surprise home invasion. All victims were bound with ligatures the criminal brought to the crime scene. The male companion, if present, was either isolated or killed first, by gunshot in the first murder, and by bludgeoning thereafter. Then, in most cases, a considerable amount of time would be spent sexually assaulting the female victim before bludgeoning her to death and ransacking the home.
The Original Night Stalker/East Area Rapist case was the motivating factor in the passage of legislation leading to the establishment of California's DNA database, which authorizes the collection of the DNA of all the accused and convicted felons in California. California's DNA data retrieval and storage program is considered by experts to be second only to Virginia's in size and effectiveness in solving cold cases. While the California DNA database motivated by this case has solved numerous previously unsolved cold cases across the country, the original case remains unsolved.
Ten murders in Goleta, Ventura, Dana Point and Irvine, California, have been linked by DNA evidence to the Original Night Stalker.
"Bird with a Broken Wing," a film based upon the life of Janelle Lisa Cruz, is currently in pre-production.
In 2001, California law enforcement linked DNA evidence from three presumed East Area Rapist crimes committed in Sacramento and Contra Costa County, California to DNA found from Southern California victims of the Original Night Stalker.[7][8][9][10] The connection of the East Area Rapist to the Original Night Stalker make this the most extensive and geographically widespread crime series in California history. The case remains open in multiple California jurisdictions.[11]
The Goleta Murders were the Offerman-Manning and Domingo-Sanchez double murders mentioned above. They were preceded on October 1, 1979, by another home invasion attack on a couple living just blocks away in the same roughly two mile square (5 km²) area of the unincorporated Santa Barbara County community of Goleta, near San Jose Creek or one of its tributaries. In this attack, the perpetrator attacked a couple sleeping in their single story home on Queen Anne Lane. He had just stolen a bike from an open garage about a quarter mile to the west. It was a warm night and many windows were open. The attacker broke into the victims' home, took a knife from the kitchen and threatened the victims. After tying them up, the attacker briefly left the victims alone, allowing them to escape separately. The noise this created compelled the attacker, who was unable to chase both victims simultaneously, to abandon his attack and flee on the bike. A neighbor who was an FBI agent, responded to the noise and briefly pursued the perpetrator until he abandoned the bike and fled on foot through local back yards. The attacker also abandoned the knife at this point. The attack was later linked physically to the Offerman-Manning murders by shoeprints and the same roll of twine being used to bind the victims. When Goleta was incorporated as a city in 2002, the locations of the three crimes were outside the new city boundaries, just to the east.
Even prior to 2001's connection of the Original Night Stalker to the East Area Rapist, some law enforcement officials, particularly several from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, sought to link the Goleta cases separately to the East Area Rapist[12] and the Original Night Stalker.[12] These postulated links were considered primarily due to similarity in modus operandi. One of the already linked Original Night Stalker double murders did take place in Ventura, California, 40 miles east of Goleta, while the remaining murders took place in Orange County, California, an additional 90 miles to the southeast. A possible reason for discounting a connection was that the murderer in Goleta appeared to lose control of his victims and did not rape his female victims even when he had the opportunity to do so. Additionally, the Goleta murders show distinctive characteristics not found in the later crimes, such as the shooting of the victims with a gun and the presence of a recently stolen bicycle at the crime scene. In 2000 an official from the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department claimed that DNA found at a Goleta crime scene did not match that found in the linked Original Night Stalker crimes.[13] However, not all of the seminal fluid or hair samples from the Goleta crimes have been preserved. Nevertheless, in 2011, DNA evidence proved that the Domingo-Sanchez murders (and therefore, via the dog, the Offerman-Manning murders) were committed by the Original Night Stalker.[14]
The Visalia Ransacker is linked to some 94 burglaries and the murder of Claude Snelling, occurring in the mid 1970s, in Visalia, California. There are similarities in modus operandi, between the Visalia Ransacker and the Original Night Stalker/East Area Rapist.
At about the same time the Visalia Ransacker stopped his crime spree in Visalia, the East Area Rapist began attacking victims in Sacramento County, California. Based on witness descriptions of the East Area Rapist and the method of operation which was used to carry out his crimes, Detective McGowan, of the Visalia Police Department, attempted to link the Visalia Ransacker crimes to the East Area Rapist. Both the Visalia Ransacker and the East Area Rapist were described as physically fit white males in their twenties. In terms of modus operandi, both the Visalia Ransacker and the East Area Rapist pulled hot prowl burglaries on single-family residences in the middle of the night. Neither the Visalia Ransacker nor the East Area Rapist ever took valuable items from the homes they burglarized. Additionally, both the Visalia Ransacker and the East Area Rapist took firearms along when burglarizing residences.
The Visalia Ransacker has eluded capture as well and may actually have been the Original Night Stalker/East Area Rapist in his fledgling years.
Throughout the course of the investigation into the Original Night Stalker murders, the following persons were suspected of committing the crimes, only to be determined to not be the culprit:
It would not be until 1996 when DNA testing came on line that the murders would be linked.
In November 2002, journalist Colleen Cason wrote a newspaper series about the Original Night Stalker murders for the Ventura County Star. According to Cason's articles, Detective Larry Pool of the Orange County Sheriff's Department visited California's Death Row at San Quentin State Prison in an attempt to locate the Original Night Stalker. Detective Pool suspected that the Original Night Stalker had been captured and sentenced to death for some other violent crime. Nevertheless, none of the genetic samples collected from Death Row inmates at San Quentin matched the DNA of the Original Night Stalker.
After criminalists matched serological evidence found at the southern California murder scenes, a psychological profile of the Original Night Stalker was compiled. According to Leslie D'Ambrosia, who was the primary author of the profile, it's likely that the Original Night Stalker would possess the following characteristics:[15]
In addition to describing the characteristics of the Original Night Stalker, the profile also speculates about the fate of the slayer. According to the profile, the Original Night Stalker could have been incarcerated following Janelle Cruz' murder or killed in the commission of a similar crime. As to the latter point, the profile indicates that law enforcement agencies should look into attempted hot prowl burglaries in the late 1980s which resulted in the death of a lone male offender. The profile also indicates that there is a slight chance the Original Night Stalker committed suicide; furthermore, it would be unlikely that he is confined in a mental institution.
The profile reveals that, following the original homicides in this series, teletypes were broadcast to law enforcement agencies throughout the United States. These teletypes requested information on similar home invasion attacks involving sexual assault, murder, bludgeoning, multiple victims, and/or bondage. As of 2011, no similar crimes have been reported in the United States. The profile propounds the possibility, however, that the Original Night Stalker could have continued committing his crimes in another country where records were not consulted for linkage purposes.
As a psychological profile is based on a probabilistic analysis, its accuracy cannot be assessed before the offender has been apprehended.