Joseph DeAngelo, the retired California police officer suspected of being the notorious Golden State killer, was charged Monday with a 13th murder, CNN reports.
DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in April after investigators used familial DNA to connect him to several crimes – DNA from a crime scene was matched to genetic material from a relative who was registered on a genealogy website and authorities later wiped the door handle of DeAngelo's vehicle to obtain his DNA. He has been accused of more than 50 rapes in 10 California counties and linked to more than 175 crimes between 1975 and 1986.
The first-degree murder charge revealed Monday is thought to be the first death in a string of slayings that stretched over a decade. DeAngelo is accused of killing a College of the Sequoia professor, Claude Snelling, who was shot Sept. 11, 1975, as he attempted to block the kidnapping of his 16-year-old daughter.
"With this filing, we have officially linked the Visalia Ransacker to an individual known as the East Area Rapist and, tragically, the Golden State Killer," said Tim Ward, Tulare County district attorney.
Snelling, he said, "died trying to save his daughter from an intruder in the early morning hours. He saved his daughter, became a hero to her that night and the community."
DeAngelo was working as a police officer in the city of Exeter when the crime occurred. Snelling was confronting a gunman who was dragging off his daughter, Elizabeth Hupp, when the intruder fired twice and then let the girl go, kicking her in the face before he took off.
Ward said "good old-fashioned, dedicated police work" played a bigger role than science and DNA in capturing DeAngelo.
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