Joseph James DeAngelo

 Former police officer and serial killer Joseph James DeAngelo earned the moniker "Golden State Killer." Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he perpetrated numerous rapes, killings, and burglaries in California. DeAngelo escaped law enforcement until his capture in 2018 despite the fact that his crimes went unresolved for decades.

The pattern of break-ins, sexual assaults, and killings that DeAngelo committed included. He was notorious for meticulous preparation and employing a variety of escape techniques, earning the moniker "Golden State Killer." Law enforcement organisations had a difficult time connecting the cases because of his offences, which occurred in several California counties.

Joseph James DeAngelo was detained in April 2018 and accused with several counts of murder as well as other offences. Advances in DNA technology that enabled detectives to connect him to the crimes through genetic ancestry led to his arrest. DeAngelo was named as a suspect when DNA evidence from crime scenes was linked to a relative of his.

DeAngelo entered a plea agreement in June 2020, agreeing to a life sentence without the possibility of parole in exchange for admitting guilt to 13 counts of first-degree murder and numerous other offences. He was not put to death as a result of his guilty plea. The Joseph James DeAngelo case is seen as a significant advancement in the resolution of a protracted cold case and demonstrated the potential of DNA and genealogy databases in aiding law enforcement in the identification and capture of suspects in unsolved crimes.