The Federal Bureau of Investigation offered a $50,000 reward Wednesday to help capture a serial killer in a 40-year-old cold case. Known as the “Golden State Killer,” the elusive criminal is suspected of 12 murders and 45 rapes throughout California from 1976 to 1986.
The suspect was known to sneak into the bedrooms of couples late at night and awaken them, wielding a handgun and shining a flashlight in their eyes. He would force the female victim to tie up her male companion before raping her, according to the FBI. Sometimes he would simply kill both.
He was initially dubbed the “East Area Rapist” after a series of sexual assaults and burglaries in Northern California between 1976 and 1978, but he later gained the moniker “Original Night Stalker” after slaying a dozen people along the California Coast and Southern California. Using DNA evidence and other clues, the police finally realized the assailant was one and the same.
The killer’s last assault occurred in Irvine, when he raped and murdered an 18-year-old woman, the FBI statement said.
“This serial offender was probably one of the most prolific, certainly in California and possibly within the United States,” Sacramento County sheriff’s homicide Sgt. Paul Belli told ACB7 Eyewitness News.
Officials described the unidentified suspect, who is now between 60 and 75 years old, as a white male with blond hair and an athletic build, at 5-foot-10-inches tall.
In addition to the $50,000 reward, FBI investigators also launched a national media campaign, including digital billboards throughout the country, social media outreach on Twitter and Facebook, and radio PSAs.
It’s not clear what induced the FBI to renew efforts to solve the 40-year-old case, but FBI spokeswoman Gina Swankie said it is an “ideal time” to encourage people to come forward with information.
“The campaign was launched to ensure that individuals who resided in the areas affected by [the killer] but have since relocated—possibly outside California—are aware that this case is not solved,” FBI spokeswoman Gina Swankie wrote in an email to the Daily Caller. “And to ensure they are aware of how to provide information if they recall anything that may be beneficial.”
The investigation of the Golden State Killer never quite died down in the first place, inspiring countless “online obsessives” who spend much of their time scouring the internet for clues that authorities may have overlooked.
“Until we put a face on a psychopath like the Golden State Killer, he will continue to hold sway over us—he will remain a powerful cipher who triumphs by being just out of reach,” stay-at-home mom named Michelle McNamara, whose personal investigation into the elusive murderer was featured in Los Angeles magazine, wrote of the criminal.
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