Photo: Joseph James DeAngelo
Santa Barbara County – Local area law enforcement leaders breathed a sigh of relief on the afternoon of April 24th when notice was received by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Cold Case Unit of the arrest of 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo, who had been residing in Citrus Heights California at the time.
According to SBSD Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, DeAngelo was “linked through DNA evidence to a double homicide” occurring just north of the City of Santa Barbara in 1981, as well as “another double homicide two years prior” and “an attempted homicide” that same year. Following those incidents, “fear and panic” was widespread throughout Santa Barbara County as well as in other nearby jurisdictions where crimes of a similar nature were reported.
Upon hearing the news of an arrest in one of the area’s most notorious and vicious crime waves, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown remarked “This is an emotional day for all of those who were impacted by this suspects’ reign of terror.” DeAngelo is suspected of being involved in the “brutal” murders of Dr. Robert Offerman and Dr. Alexandria Manning who were murdered while sleeping in their Goleta home, and in the murders of Greg Sanchez and Cheri Domingo under identical home invasion circumstances.
The 40-year-old investigation into these crimes, doggedly pursued by SBSD Detective Gary Kitzmann, came to an end with DeAngelo’s arrest by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office when detectives matched “discarded DNA evidence with genetic evidence from the crimes.” It is suspected that DeAngelo is responsible for “12 murders, more than fifty rapes, and potentially hundreds of burglaries” across ten California counties.
Photo: Courtesy Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department
