Golden State Killer Victims: Murders, Survivors, and Compensation

The Golden State Killer’s victims include 13 people murdered across six California counties between 1975 and 1986, roughly 50 people raped during a parallel string of home-invasion attacks, and dozens of surviving family members who lived for decades without knowing who had shattered their lives. Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. pleaded guilty in June 2020 to all 13 murders and admitted to 161 additional uncharged crimes, most of them sexual assaults that could no longer be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired.¹ He is serving multiple consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole.

The 13 People He Killed

DeAngelo’s acknowledged murder victims were killed in Tulare, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Orange counties, along with attacks tied to the same pattern in other jurisdictions. Many were couples attacked in their own homes.

Claude Snelling, killed September 11, 1975, in Visalia. Snelling, a 45-year-old journalism professor at the College of the Sequoias, was shot twice after confronting a masked intruder trying to kidnap his 16-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Hupp, from her bedroom. He died en route to the hospital.²³
Brian Maggiore, 21, and Katie Maggiore, 20, killed February 2, 1978, in Rancho Cordova. The couple were shot while walking their dog. Prosecutors said Brian was shot first; when Katie tried to flee and call for help, DeAngelo chased her down and shot her in the head.²
Dr. Robert Offerman, 44, and Dr. Debra Alexandria Manning, 35, killed December 30, 1979, in Goleta. Offerman was an orthopedic surgeon and Manning a psychologist. They were found tied up in their condominium, killed by gunshot or blunt force trauma during a break-in that also involved sexual assault.⁴
Lyman Smith, 43, and Charlene Smith, 33 or 34, killed on or about March 13, 1980, in Ventura County. Lyman was a former Ventura County deputy district attorney who was days away from becoming a judge. DeAngelo tied the couple up and bludgeoned them to death with a fire log from their property. Charlene was also sexually assaulted. Their bodies were discovered by Lyman’s 12-year-old son, Gary.⁵⁶
Keith Harrington, 24, and Patrice Harrington, 27, killed August 21, 1980, in Dana Point. Prosecutors tied the killings to the same pattern of home-invasion murders.¹
Manuela Witthuhn, 28, killed February 6, 1981, in Irvine. She was bludgeoned to death in her home. Investigators initially suspected her husband, David, who endured years of suspicion before DNA evidence cleared him and linked the crime to DeAngelo. David Witthuhn died in 2008 without ever seeing the killer identified.⁷
Cheri Domingo, 35, and Gregory Sanchez, 27, killed July 27, 1981, in Goleta. DeAngelo shot Sanchez in the face. While the attacker was assaulting and beating Domingo, Sanchez reportedly regained consciousness and fought back. Both were beaten to death.⁸
Janelle Cruz, 18, killed May 4–5, 1986, in Irvine. Cruz was home alone while her family was in Mexico. She was raped and bludgeoned to death, and her body was discovered the following evening by a realtor showing the home. In the weeks before her murder, she had received threatening phone calls from a caller who whispered, “I’m going to kill you.” She was DeAngelo’s last known victim.⁹

The Rape and Home-Invasion Survivors

Prosecutors estimated that roughly 50 people were raped over the course of DeAngelo’s crime spree.⁵ As part of his 2020 plea, he admitted to 161 uncharged crimes involving 61 additional victims, many of them assaults that could no longer be charged because the statute of limitations had run.¹

The rapes began in the summer of 1976 in eastern Sacramento County. DeAngelo was linked to at least 38 attacks in the Sacramento and Stockton areas between 1976 and 1978.¹⁰ In late 1978 the pattern shifted to the Bay Area, with incidents in Concord, San Jose, Danville, Fremont, and Walnut Creek before ending there in July 1979. The uncharged crimes spanned at least seven California counties: Alameda, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, Tulare, and Yolo.¹

What Survivors and Families Carried for Decades

Because DeAngelo went unidentified for more than 40 years, most survivors lived with the attacks unresolved. Their statements during four days of victim impact testimony in August 2020, delivered in a makeshift courtroom at Sacramento State University, gave the fullest public account of what that time had cost them.

Jane Carson-Sandler, one of the earliest rape victims, described a state of perpetual vigilance since her 1976 attack, with sounds of helicopters and the sight of ski masks becoming triggers. “Our wounds heal and our scars remain,” she told the court, adding that she had served “an effective life sentence” since the assault.¹¹

Kris Pedretti was 15 when she was raped in December 1976. She described losing her childhood identity overnight, then enduring panic attacks, failed relationships, and unhealthy coping mechanisms for 41 years, with parents who refused to discuss the assault. DeAngelo’s 2018 arrest became a turning point: she sought therapy and founded a support group for sexual assault survivors that grew to more than 300 members. In court, she told DeAngelo, “The devil can keep you company in your prison cell, as he gnaws away at whatever soul you have left.”¹¹¹²

Gay Hardwick, attacked alongside her partner Bob in 1978, told the court: “That’s been with me for 42 years now, and in my view that’s a long life sentence for someone to serve who didn’t deserve to serve it.”¹¹ Patricia Murphy, attacked in September 1976, reported lasting PTSD, nightmares, and a broken nose that never fully healed, and turned to drugs and alcohol to cope.¹²

Some victims did not live to see the arrest. Debbie Strauss Popado, raped in October 1977, spent decades scanning grocery stores and movie theaters for her attacker. She died of cancer in 2016. Her sister, Sandy James, said the assault “chipped away at her soul” and that DeAngelo’s eventual arrest triggered “a new cycle of grieving” for the family.¹²

Elizabeth Hupp, whose father Claude Snelling was killed trying to save her from being kidnapped, told the court she had carried guilt for years before accepting that “there was nothing I could have said that would have kept my dad from trying to save me.” She directed her anger at DeAngelo: “What sickens and angers me the most is that DeAngelo was able to live a normal life with his family for all those years, while my family and I could not be with my dad.”³

Jennifer Carole, the stepdaughter of murder victim Lyman Smith, became one of the most visible family advocates over the course of the case. She attended hearings and pretrial proceedings, hosted a podcast called “The Lawyer’s Daughter,” and appeared in the HBO docuseries “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.” She publicly challenged the production for airing uncensored crime scene photographs of the Smith murders, saying the images risked retraumatizing surviving family members.¹³ She has described her perspective as viewing the case “through the eyes of a lawyer and the heart of a victim.”¹⁴

Compensation for Surviving Victims

Because most of the attacks fell outside the ordinary filing window for state victim compensation, California Senate Bill 858 was proposed in 2018 to extend the deadlines so Golden State Killer survivors could apply for restitution through the state Victim Compensation Board. At the time it was advancing, 25 victims had already contacted the board, and officials projected that around 50 direct survivors and 12 family members would be eligible. Maximum compensation amounts were modest, ranging from $10,000 for crimes committed in 1974 to $46,000 for crimes in 1986.¹⁵

How the Case Finally Closed

For decades, investigators had DNA from crime scenes but no match in the FBI’s criminal databases. In 2001, DNA testing confirmed that the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker were the same person, but the identity remained unknown.¹⁶ After 10 days of surveillance at DeAngelo’s Citrus Heights home, investigators collected discarded DNA that matched. He was arrested on April 24, 2018, at age 72.¹⁷

On June 29, 2020, DeAngelo pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of kidnapping to commit robbery in a joint prosecution spanning Sacramento, Tulare, Contra Costa, Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Orange counties. He also admitted to the 161 uncharged crimes. In exchange, prosecutors from all six counties agreed to abandon the death penalty, citing the advanced age of the defendant, surviving victims, and witnesses, the death of some key witnesses, more than 1.3 million pages of discovery, and the prospect of a trial that could take up to a decade.¹¹⁸

On August 21, 2020, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman sentenced DeAngelo to multiple consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole. Before the sentence was imposed, DeAngelo stood and said, “I’ve listened to all your statements, each one of them, and I’m truly sorry to everyone I’ve hurt.” Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert addressed survivors directly at sentencing: “Know that the monster of your childhood or your younger years is gone forever and will die alone in the dark.”¹⁹

1
Contra Costa County. Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. Guilty Plea
2
ABC News. Inside the Timeline of Crimes of the Golden State Killer
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ABC30. Golden State Killer Victims Continue Impact Statements in Sacramento
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Ventura County Star. Santa Barbara County DA Announces Golden State Killer Murder Charges
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Ventura County Star. Golden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelo Pleads Guilty to Murdering Ventura Couple
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KCRA. Daughter Whose Loss Helped Break the East Area Rapist Case
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LAist. Before Nabbing the Alleged Golden State Killer
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Los Angeles Times. Golden State Killer Goleta Investigation
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First Coast News. Mother of Last Known Murder Victim of the Golden State Killer Breaks Her Silence
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ABC7 News. Timeline: Looking Back at Golden State Killer Crimes
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PBS NewsHour. Victims Tell of Trauma, Healing in Golden State Killer Case
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ABC News. Survivors of Golden State Killer Prepare to Address Court
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CT Post. Jennifer Carole on I’ll Be Gone in the Dark
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Jennifer Carole. The Lawyer’s Daughter
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Los Angeles Times. Golden State Killer Victims Could Be Eligible for Restitution
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CNN. Golden State Killer DNA Report
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NPR. In Hunt for Golden State Killer, Investigators Uploaded His DNA to Genealogy Site
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Death Penalty Information Center. Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo Pleads Guilty to 13 Murders and Rapes
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Courthouse News Service. The Monster Will Die Alone in the Dark: Golden State Killer Gets 26 Life Terms