Former police officer named as serial killer accused in at least 12 homicides

SACREMENTO, Calif. — A law enforcement official has identified a suspected California serial killer as 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer.

Sacramento County jail records show DeAngelo was arrested overnight on suspicion of two counts of murder cited in a Ventura County warrant.

The FBI says it has a team gathering evidence at a Sacramento-area home linked to DeAngelo.

Jane Carson-Sandler said she received an email Wednesday from a retired detective who worked on the case telling her they identified the man and have him in custody.

She said she's ecstatic to have closure and to know her attacker is in jail.

TRENDING STORIES:

• Michael Vick to coach new professional football team coming to Atlanta
• Man frustrated by lack of help at Walmart takes matters into his own hands
• GBI 'conducting interviews, collecting documents' at Atlanta City Hall

Carson-Sandler, who now lives near Hilton Head, South Carolina, was one of dozens of women raped by an elusive serial killer police say killed at least 12 people.

She was attacked in her Citrus Heights, California, home in 1976. She and her 3-year-old son were snuggled in bed together one morning after her husband left for work when the man broke into her house.

She says she hopes she'll have the opportunity to face her attacker in person. She says she has a lot of questions for him.

In addition to the homicides, investigators say the serial killer also committed 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across the state in the 1970s and 1980s.

The attacker became known as the "East Area Rapist."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Cox Media Group