Serial Killer Realizes He_s Caught After 40 Years
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A retired police officer who spent a decade evading capture by leaving his badge at home and his DNA at the scene. A killer who stopped when he got bored. For 40 years, he thought he was safe. Then his cousin uploaded a family tree to the internet. In 2018, Joseph James DeAngelo, the Golden State Killer, was arrested at 72 years old after evading capture for four decades [citation:9]. He had terrorized California from 1976 to 1986, committing at least 12 murders and 50 rapes [citation:9]. The break didn't come from a witness or a confession—it came from a genealogy website. Investigators uploaded DNA from a 1980 crime scene to an open-source database and matched it to distant relatives of DeAngelo [citation:3]. They then swabbed his car door handle while he shopped at a Hobby Lobby and fished a tissue from his trash [citation:4][citation:9]. When police surrounded his Citrus Heights home, the former cop's reign of terror was over. He now sits on death row, unmasked as the monster who hid behind a badge. Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play because the man who thought he was untouchable finally learned that DNA never forgets.
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