Manuela Witthuhn, 28 was bound, raped and bludgeoned to death in 1981 in the bedroom of a single-story house in Irvine. She was alone. Her husband, David, was hospitalized at the time. DNA evidence led authorities to link the crime to the East Area Rapist. (File photo)

Janelle Cruz was believed to have been a victim of the Golden State Killer.

Sound The gallery will resume in seconds

In this 2000 photo, brothers Ronald Harrington, 53, from left, Douglas Harrington, 49, and Bruce Harrington, 56, stand near the grave of their brother, Keith, and sister-in-law, Patty, who were killed in 1980. (Photo by MIndy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Newlyweds Keith and Patty Harrington were killed in August 1980. They are believed to be among the victims of the Golden State Killer. (Courtesy of the Harrington family)

Handwriting examples were hoped to lead to identification of the person responsible for at least 12 homicides and at least 45 rapes in California. (Courtesy of Larry Pool)



Another handwriting sample. (Courtesy of Larry Pool)

A drawing found outside a Sacramento County crime scene tied to the Original Night Stalker shows features reminiscent of a Goleta neighborhood where investigators believe the serial killer was also active. (Courtesy of Larry Pool)

On the back of the neighborhood drawing, the word "punishment" is written. Investigators have noted that the Original Night Stalker appears to have been motivated by anger. (Courtesy of Larry Pool)

SANTA ANA – In the decades since the Golden State Killer is believed to have slain his last Orange County victim, investigators in Southern California never gave up their search for his identity.

With news of the arrest of a man authorities have identified as the suspected serial killer, also known as the Original Night Stalker and the East Area Rapist, local law enforcement officials said years of determined investigative work finally paid off.

Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was initially charged in connection with two Ventura County killings. Late Wednesday, Orange County District Attorney’s Office officials announced that they had charged him with special circumstances murder in connection to four additional killings in Irvine and Dana Point.

“We’ve always believed this would begin and end with DNA,” Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said at a Sacramento news conference announcing DeAngelo’s arrest. “Finally, after all these years, the haunting question of who committed these horrible crimes has been put to rest.”

After decades of investigation, authorities say DeAngelo is suspected of a dozen-year crime wave that begin in 1974 and included him killing at least 12 people, raping at least 45 and burglarizing hundreds of homes. The crimes began in the Sacramento area before moving to the Central Valley, the Bay Area and finally to Southern California.

It is unclear for how many of these crimes prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to pursue further criminal charges. By charging DeAngelo with special circumstances murder, prosecutors have the option of pursuing the death penalty.

“It’s time for all victims to grieve and to take measure one last time,” said Bruce Harrington, whose brother Keith and sister-in-law Patty were killed in their Dana Point home in 1980. “It’s time for the victims to begin to heal. … So long overdue.”

Speaking at the Sacramento press conference, Harrington commended the “tenacious” police work.

For years, the Orange County investigation into the Golden State Killer was led by now-retired Orange County sheriff’s Investigator Larry Pool, who took up the case when he was assigned to the department’s unsolved homicide team in 1997.

“Its just this sigh of relief from deep within that I haven’t felt ever,” said Pool about his response to the arrest. “Many investigators over the course of this case have just prayed ‘I hope I see the day the offender is identified.’ Today is that day, and some of us are still experiencing a bit of shock.”

Pool and his team began by looking into the August 1980 slaying of the newlywed Dana Point couple. The killer entered Keith and Patty Harrington’s unlocked residence just after 11 p.m., tied them up, raped Patty, then covered the two with bedding and bludgeoned them to death.

DNA evidence led Pool to link the Harringtons’ killings to a pair of Irvine slayings.

In 1981, the killer broke into the home of Manuela Witthuhn, whose husband was at the hospital with an illness. Investigators believe that the assailant meant to target the couple and was surprised to find Witthuhn home alone, but killed her anyway. Witthuhn’s husband, David Witthuhn, was a suspect in her death before he was cleared by DNA. He died in 2008.

In 1986, the killer is believed to have targeted Janelle Cruz, who was alone at her parents’ Irvine home while they were on vacation. Investigators believe the killer attacked Cruz shortly after her boyfriend left, raping her and bludgeoning her to death.

DNA evidence from the Orange County homicides ultimately led authorities also to link the killer in those cases to the notorious East Area Rapist, who is believed to have sexually assaulted more than three dozen Northern California women in the late 1970s.

Pool described how the suspect evolved from a day and nighttime prowler carrying out a string of burglaries in Visalia to a rapist targeting more than 40 women in Sacramento County to a brutal killer by the time he moved on to Southern California.

Pool said by the time his tenure at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department ended, he had a database of 8,000 potential suspects. The investigator, who now works for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, acknowledged that DeAngelo was not in that database.

Believing the killings had come to an end after the second Irvine slaying, investigators initially speculated that the killer likely was in jail, incapacitated or dead. As the state’s DNA database grew, Pool said that in recent years he no longer believed that the killer was behind bars, instead believing there was a 50-50 shot whether he was alive or dead.

Pool said he hadn’t spoken to Harrington since 2004.

“Bruce essentially told me ‘Don’t take it personally, I like you, but I don’t want to talk to you again until you identify the offender,’ Pool said. “I said ‘I’ll make a promise to you right now that the next call will be when the offender was identified.’”

“I’m happy to say that the next conversation I had with the family after that promise was today,” Pool added.

Irvine police officials, whose investigators spent years pursuing the killer, attributed the arrest to the tenacity of law enforcement agencies.

“The right people continued to do the right work and we have come to resolution,” said Julia Engen, assistant chief of the Irvine Police Department. “It transcends jurisdiction, it transcends ranks and all of that. It is a story about an awful predator and the impact it has had on all the victims.”

Michelle Cruz, Janelle Cruz’s sister, said she never gave up hope that the killer would be found.

On Wednesday, Michelle Cruz, a single mom of four who lives in Georgia, said she has been obsessed for years with catching the killer, setting up Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts and selling T-shirts to raise awareness.

She said she has spent nearly all of her free time researching the case.

“I’m just so relieved,” she said. “I no longer have to live in fear. I can finally have some happiness in my life.”

In recent years, public focus on the search for the identity of the Golden State Killer was bolstered by the work of true-crime writer Michelle McNamara. A book outlining McNamara’s exhaustive investigation, “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” was completed after her death in April 2016 by a journalist and researcher recruited by McNamara’s husband, comedian Patton Oswalt.

“I think you got him, Michelle,” Oswalt tweeted Wednesday morning.

Law enforcement officials are still working out in which county DeAngelo will be prosecuted.

“We have to take time to get it right,” Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said.

While DNA was key to the investigation, Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones said without the “passion and determination” of investigators there wouldn’t have been an arrest.

“DNA got us to the road, but the road had many destinations,” Jones said. “This was a true convergence of emerging technology and dogged investigation.”

Bruce Harrington said the case highlights the importance of DNA in solving crimes. Harrington, a Newport Beach developer, was a major proponent of Proposition 69 after his brother’s death. The measure, passed by voters in 2004, requires DNA samples from all convicted felons that are put in a state database.

On Wednesday, he said the surviving victims can now rest.

“Sleep better tonight,” he said. “He isn’t coming through the window. He’s now in jail, and he’s history.”