An FBI wanted poster suggests he may have some military training and is “proficient with weapons”. The subject ransacked homes and took coins, jewelry, and identification.
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The national campaign will include billboards with renderings of the attacker based on descriptions provided by victims.
The FBI and Sacramento County officials announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the man known as the “East Area Rapist” and “Golden State Killer” who has eluded authorities for 40 years.
Law enforcement is aiming to saturate the nation with information about the man because people who knew him may have moved, Sacramento-area Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Gina Swankie said.
Authorities believe the Golden State Killer, formerly known as the East Area Rapist, committed 12 homicides, 45 rapes and more than 120 burglaries.
“Detectives have DNA from multiple crime scenes that can positively link – or eliminate – suspects”.
The man is also a suspect in more than 150 burglaries.
“People who know the subject may not believe him capable of such crimes”, the release says.
He committed his first known rape on June 18, 1976, nearly exactly 40 years ago.
Within a month, he raped again, this time a teenage girl, reported CBS 13.
Burglaries and rapes began occurring in the Sacramento area during the summer of 1976. He’d find them sleeping, shine a flashlight in their eyes, then tie them up. Couples were often targeted. He usually stole cash or small items from the homes. From 1981-1986, there was no criminal trail of the killer, which Sacramento Sheriff’s Office says could mean that he may have been incarcerated for other crimes during that time. She woke up in the middle of the night with a man’s hand over her mouth.
Also known as the “East Area Rapist”, the suspect started his rampage in 1976 in neighborhoods throughout east Sacramento and targeted women home alone, women with children and couples. “He put me back in bed and said, ‘If you move, I’m going to kill you”.
That call wasn’t the only one his rape victims reported to authorities.
Soon after, the killings began.
Investigators believe he is responsible for the 1978 murders of a U.S. Air Force sergeant and his wife.
“Everyone was afraid”, FBI Special Agent and California native Marcus Knutson said at a Sacramento press conference Wednesday. People were concerned, and they had a right to be. “Obviously, this was a period when the community was terrorized and traumatized. Gonna kill you. Gonna kill you”, he breathes to one of his rape victims in a message she recorded sometime after the attack. Then, suddenly, the crimes stopped.
Authorities are hoping tips from the public will help them crack the case after all these years.
In the Sacramento area, the “East Area Rapist” is a familiar name for longtime residents, according to Schubert, who was 12 and lived in East Sacramento at the time of the first attacks.
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Additionally, the killer burglarized homes and stole valuables from victims while they were tied up.
