The 2018 OCHIA Case of the Year was awarded to the Golden State Killer Task Force, which includes personnel from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Irvine Police Department and Orange County District Attorney’s office.

Joseph DeAngelo, a former police officer with the Exeter and Auburn Police Departments, is suspected of committing at least 13 murders, 50 rapes and 100 burglaries in California from 1974 to 1986. He has been known as the Visalia Ransacker, East Area Rapist, Original Night Stalker and most recently, the Golden State Killer.

Four of DeAngelo’s murders occurred in three separate Orange County incidents:

1. On August 19, 1980, 24-year-old Keith Harrington and 27-year-old Patrice Harrington were bludgeoned to death in their Dana Point home. Patrice Harrington had also been raped. Patrice was a nurse and Keith was a medical student at UC Irvine.

2. On February 6, 1981, 28-year-old Manuela Witthuhn was raped and bludgeoned in her Irvine home. Manuela was married, but her husband was hospitalized at the time of her murder so she was home alone.

3. On May 4, 1986, 18-year-old Janelle Cruz was found raped and bludgeoned to death in her Irvine home. Janelle’s family was on vacation in Mexico at the time of the attack. 

In 1998, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department started the Original Night Stalker task force, which included personnel from the Irvine Police Department and Ventura Police Department. In 2001, DNA evidence connected the East Area Rapist cases out of Sacramento to Orange County’s Original Night Stalker cases, but there were no hits in CODIS. In the following years, personnel from Santa Barbara, Sacramento, Contra Costa, Visalia, the FBI and the Orange County District Attorney’s office joined OCSD, Irvine PD and Ventura PD to form the Golden State Killer Task Force.

On April 25, 2018, Joseph DeAngelo was arrested in Citrus Heights, California, after his DNA linked him to these crimes, nearly 45 years after his crime spree began. Investigators across the state, many of whom worked in Orange County, used genetic genealogy and familial research to connect DeAngelo with the case. Along the way, Orange County investigators generated legislation, such as Prop. 69, that has benefitted law enforcement tremendously. DeAngelo has been charged with 13 counts of murder, including the four from Orange County. 

Learn more about the case here: https://www.ocregister.com/2018/04/25/southern-california-investigators-trying-to-solve-4-orange-county-murder-cases-never-gave-up-the-hunt-for-the-golden-state-killer/.