HAVE POLICE FOUND THE GOLDEN STATE KILLER?

"48 Hours" Reports on the Shocking Update to a Decades-Long Hunt

Saturday, April 28, 9:00 PM, ET/PT

Sacramento County Sheriff's Dept./Placer County Museums Joseph James DeAngelo

Investigators in California have spent decades searching for an elusive criminal who terrorized Californians by committing at least 50 rapes and a dozen murders between 1976 and 1986. This week, police arrested a 72-year-old former police officer, Joseph James DeAngelo, on charges of killing eight people - believed victims of the so-called "Golden State Killer."

Tracy Smith and 48 HOURS investigate the string of rapes and murders that haunted Californians and this shocking development in an updated edition of "The Golden State Killer" to be broadcast Saturday, April 28 (9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

The killer tormented California residents by breaking into homes in the middle of the night and confronting his victims. Near the end of the spree, he escalated to murder, ensuring he'd leave no witnesses. 48 HOURS: "The Golden State Killer" features new interviews with survivors and witnesses who have spent years wondering if the killer and rapist would ever be caught.

"I always thought he would be caught, always believed he was alive," survivor Jane Carson-Sandler tells 48 HOURS. "I don't have to be looking over my shoulder every night."

"So important to the families to have closure. He took their loved ones away," says survivor Margaret Wardlow.

It was also a story that inspired the late true-crime writer Michelle McNamara, who, until she died in April 2016, was obsessed with the case. In fact, in 2013, while working on a story for Los Angeles magazine, McNamara, the wife of actor Patton Oswalt, dubbed the suspect "The Golden State Killer."

"I'd go back into the back office, and Michelle would just be there, just like, in tears because some - some road she had gone down had not panned out and then - it's like, 'I now have to start back again from zero,'" Patton Oswalt told Smith of McNamara's tenacity to solve the case. Her book was published in February and reached the top of the New York Times Best Sellers list.

Do police have the person who committed all 12 murders and at least 50 rapes? Smith and 48 HOURS have the latest on the investigation and what led police to DeAngelo.

48 HOURS: "The Golden State Killer" is produced by Susan Mallie, Lourdes Aguiar, Gayane Keshishyan Mendez and Lauren Clark. Atticus Brady and Mead Stone are producer-editors. Greg McLaughlin, Michelle Harris, Michael Baluzy and Jud Johnston are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Susan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer.

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