Where Is the Golden State Killer Now? Inside Joseph James DeAngelo’s Life 45 Years After His Violent Crime Spree Began

Joseph James DeAngelo was unmasked as the Golden State Killer more than 40 years after his first attack.

Also called the East Side Rapist, Visalia Ransacker and the Original Night Stalker (as his crimes preceded Richard Ramirez’s reign of terror in Los Angeles by about a decade), DeAngelo left residents of northern California in fear for 10 years with a crime spree of burglary, rape and murder.

His first documented attack occurred in 1973, and his last known murder was in 1986, but he wasn’t caught until seven years ago, on April 24, 2018.

“One of the reasons the Golden State Killer is so haunting is the way he toyed with his victims,” former PEOPLE editor-in-chief Jess Cagle explained in PEOPLE Magazine Investigates: The Golden State Killer Caught. “The way he starts out as a rapist, becomes a serial rapist, becomes a killer, becomes a serial killer. You’re watching the evolution of horror.”

Here is everything to know about the crimes of the Golden State Killer and where Joseph James DeAngelo is now.

Who is Joseph James DeAngelo?

Before Joseph James DeAngelo, Jr. became known as the Golden State Killer, he was born in Bath, N.Y., on Nov. 8, 1945. He had two sisters, Rebecca and Constance, and a younger brother named John. Their father, Joseph James DeAngelo, Sr., was an Army sergeant, and the family moved often. Their dad left the family after he got stationed in Florida and Korea, the Los Angeles Times reported.

By many accounts, DeAngelo had a troubled childhood: His sister Rebecca alleged that their father abused her brother and prosecutors claimed that DeAngelo committed acts of vandalism, theft, burglary and animal cruelty as a teenager, per the Associated Press. DeAngelo’s nephew Jesse Ryland claimed to BuzzFeed News that when DeAngelo was a child, he witnessed two men rape Constance in a warehouse in Germany, alleging that it may have been a determining factor in DeAngelo’s descent into sex crimes and murder.

While some believed DeAngelo’s childhood led him to a life of crime, others have pointed to his failed engagement.

After getting his GED, DeAngelo served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, then studied police science and criminal justice. In 1970, he got engaged to Bonnie Ueltzen (née Colwell), who ended their relationship by spring 1971. After the breakup, Ueltzen alleged to the Los Angeles Times that DeAngelo showed up outside of her bedroom window with a gun to try to force her to marry him. Her father allegedly intervened, but didn’t call the police.

DeAngelo married Sharon Huddle in 1973 and became a police officer in Exeter, Calif., the same year, working the burglary beat. He was then hired as an officer in Auburn, Calif., where he worked from 1976 to 1979, when he was fired after he was arrested for shoplifting dog repellent and a hammer, according to The New York Times. The Sacramento Bee reported that DeAngelo then worked as a diesel mechanic for Save Mart supermarkets in Roseville, Calif., for nearly three decades.

DeAngelo and Huddle separated in 1990, as the Los Angeles Times reported, and shared three daughters and one granddaughter. They finalized their divorce in 2019, after his arrest.

What crimes did Joseph James DeAngelo commit?

DeAngelo’s documented violent crimes began in 1973, though it’s suspected he began even earlier. His first assaults were burglaries, then rapes which eventually devolved into murders.

Investigators claimed in PEOPLE Magazine Investigates: The Golden State Killer Caught that he would pry open doors and windows to homes while people were asleep and shine flashlights in victims’ eyes. In some cases, he allegedly broke in days or weeks before attacking to research his victims.

“He would bring the shoelaces with him and then he would tie up the husband and put him on his stomach, and put teacups or plates on his back and take the woman off and rape her,” Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert previously claimed to PEOPLE. “He did that with the man because he could then hear the guy if he moved. It was very distinctive.”

Survivors also reported hearing DeAngelo eating in their kitchens, and investigators often found stolen bicycles abandoned in the vicinity of each property where an attack took place.

His attacks escalated with the murders of Brian and Katie Maggiore, who he shot while they were walking their dog. After this, he continued to murder and became more “sophisticated.”

“He always left them bound so he could get to his car before they could get free,” retired Contra Costa, Calif., detective Larry Crompton told PEOPLE in 2018. “In the murders he then started taking the bindings with him. He was becoming more sophisticated with regard to what he was doing.”

DeAngelo also stole personal property like jewelry, china and silverware from homes, including from those of his rape and murder victims. He committed his final known murder in 1986.

How many victims did Joseph James DeAngelo have?

DeAngelo burglarized more than 120 homes, raped at least 45 individuals and murdered at least 13 people, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The women who survived his sexual assaults include Debbie Strauss, Jane Carson-Sandler, Susan Peterson, Peterson’s sister Peggy Rex; Kris Pedretti, then 15, and Margaret Wardlow, then 13, as well as Wardlow’s mother.

His known murder victims include Manuela Witthuhn, 28; Lyman and Charlene Smith, 43 and 33; Gregory Sanchez, 27; Cheri Domingo, 35; Keith and Patrice Harrington, 24 and 27; Katie and Brian Maggiore, 20 and 21; Debra Manning, 35; Robert Offerman, 44 and Claude Snelling, 45, who died defending his 16-year-old daughter when DeAngelo tried to abduct her in their home.

His final known slaying was Janelle Cruz, 18, in May 1986.

Why did it take so long to catch the Golden State Killer?

It took 45 years after DeAngelo’s first confirmed attack for authorities to arrest him, and a large part of what made the case difficult to crack was simply the time period in which it occurred.

“This was the ’70s, so a lot of things we take for granted now — DNA, surveillance cameras — just weren’t a thing,” PEOPLE editor Greg Hanlon previously told PEOPLE Now. At the time, even 911 wasn’t yet widely in use.

DeAngelo’s history in law enforcement also gave him an edge when it came to committing crimes undetected, per The New York Times. He always wore gloves and never left fingerprints.

DeAngelo also disguised his voice and used varying accents for each attack and never wore the same ski mask, gloves or jackets, according to PEOPLE Magazine Investigates: The Golden State Killer Caught.

How did Joseph James DeAngelo get caught?

Though DeAngelo was meticulous in not revealing his identity to victims and careful to not leave physical evidence behind at his crime scenes, DNA technology eventually caught up with him.

Police had obtained a semen sample after DeAngelo raped Carson-Sandler in October 1976, but at the time, authorities only had the technology to determine his blood type, per PEOPLE Magazine Investigates.

In December 1978, DeAngelo left a piece of hard evidence behind at a crime scene in the Sacramento suburb of Danville, Calif.: Tire impressions near railroad tracks, as well as three handwritten pages, one of which was an essay about how his sixth-grade teacher was allegedly mean to him. On another sheet, there were maps and women’s names, as well as the word “punishment.”

In 2001, cold case investigators used DNA from several crime scenes to link the killer to more than 50 cases throughout California, The Sacramento Bee reported. Fifteen years later, the FBI offered a $50,000 reward for information in the case, and in April 2018, arrested DeAngelo, who was charged with 13 counts of murder and 13 counts of kidnapping, per Rolling Stone.

Police sources previously told PEOPLE that they used “sophisticated DNA analysis” to nab the suspect. Their process started when DNA collected from one of his crime scenes was a confirmed match to one of his relatives on the genealogy site GEDmatch.com.

Authorities then narrowed down their search by age, sex, residence and other factors. Eventually, they landed on DeAngelo, at which point they tested DNA from a discarded item at his home. It matched the killer’s. Within days, police apprehended DeAngelo.

“If it wasn’t for that DNA, his name would never have surfaced — period,” Schubert told PEOPLE. “There was a needle in that haystack, and we found that damn needle. I always believed it was a matter of persistence.”

What was Joseph James DeAngelo’s sentence?

In June 2020, DeAngelo agreed to plead guilty to 13 murders and kidnappings in order to avoid the death penalty. At his sentencing, several people who survived his attacks as well as family members of his murder victims spoke out, including Carson-Sandler, whom Ueltzen accompanied to court.

“When she saw who you really were, she was done with you,” Carson-Sandler said in court. “I can see that ‘I hate you, Bonnie’ was a result of your frustration, because you lost control over her,” she added, referencing one victim who said they’d heard DeAngelo scream the phrase during an attack. “But she bears none, none of that responsibility for your violent choices, and we consider her one of us — the sister-survivors of your malicious attacks.”

In August 2020, DeAngelo was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, per CBS News. Specifically, he received 11 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, 15 life terms with the possibility of parole and eight years for other enhancements.

Before his sentence was announced, DeAngelo told the court, “I’ve listened to all your statements, each one of them. And I’m truly sorry to everyone I’ve hurt.”

Judge Michael Bowman, who presided over the case, announced, “The defendant deserves no mercy.”

Where is Joseph James DeAngelo now?

On Nov. 3, 2020, DeAngelo reported to North Kern State Prison in Delano, Calif., to begin serving his life sentences, according to the Los Angeles Times.

He was transferred to protective custody in California State Prison in Corcoran, Calif., on Jan. 26, 2021, KGET reported, noting that particularly notorious prisoners may otherwise be at risk if they’re with the general population of inmates.