Claude Snelling, 'an ideal father' who fought off Ransacker, died saving daughter

Elizabeth Hupp had a special bond with her father, Claude Snelling.

She remembers spending hours hiking together in the mountains and traveling home together at the end of each day — her on a bike and him on foot.

"He was an ideal father and a great man," Hupp said. "He loved me and my brothers and my mom very much."

Snelling was also an ideal professor who shared his love of journalism with students and colleagues at College of the Sequoias.

Snelling and his wife, Arlene, raised Hupp and her two brothers in a Christian environment. Snelling taught Sunday School, belonged to the Gideon Society and was active in the YMCA, according to people who knew him best.

But, that peaceful existence wouldn't last.

A man — unknown to the family — would take Snelling's life and the family's sense of security— safety that's taken nearly 43 years to get back.

"It upsets me when I think about how he would have been a great grandpa with my kids. He wasn't here to give me away at my wedding," Hupp said. "So many things were taken from us."

That man, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., pled guilty Monday in a Sacramento court to Snelling's murder, along with 12 other killings and countless rapes.

Sept 11, 1975

Around 2 a.m. on Sept. 11, 1975, Hupp, then 16, woke up to a man wearing a ski mask hovering over her.

With a whisper, the man ordered her to leave the home with him. He told her to remain silent or he would kill her.

"It was so fuzzy, I didn't really comprehend what was going on," Hupp said. "I couldn't help it, I started crying."

As the masked man forced her out the back door which led to the family's carport, Hupp said her father looked out the kitchen window and saw the two.

That's when Snelling, 45, took action.

"I heard a yell and saw my dad charge out the back door," Hupp said. "[The kidnapper] threw me down and shot my dad twice. Then he pointed the gun at me."

Hupp said she thought at that moment her life would end. Instead, the masked man hit her with his gun, kicked her and then ran off.

Hupp ran into the home and found her father collapsed in the front doorway. She thinks her father was trying to catch the man as he ran around the house.

She stayed with her father while her mother called for help.

Snelling died on the way to the hospital.

"The fact that he died saving my life means the world to me," Hupp said. "My mom always said it wouldn't have mattered if there were 20 guys outside with guns, he would have saved me."

A phone call decades in the making

Two years ago, Hupp answered a phone call she never thought would come. Her father's suspected killer was behind bars.

The news left Hupp and her family speechless, she said.

"It was just unreal; stunning," Hupp said. "I never expected him to be caught. I always thought he was in prison for another crime or dead."

DeAngelo was the notorious Visalia Ransacker — also known as the East Area Rapist, Golden State Killer and the Original Night Stalker.

The persistence of law enforcement over the decades was "amazing," Hupp said.

"So many times it seemed like leads went cold and it seemed there were always new younger detectives who kept it going," she said. "Every so often we'd hear from them."

A community sigh of relief

When the news broke two years ago, community members were also stunned.

COS journalism professor Judy Menezes said she remembers being told about Snelling when she was first hired at the community college in the early 90s.

"It's just crazy," she said of the arrest.

More recently, the campus library has received many calls from people looking for more information about Snelling, said a librarian.

"Everybody is trying to find something on him," the librarian said.

That great interest in Snelling is a reflection of the impact he left on the community, Hupp said.

Visalia residents have again rallied around the family, just as they did in 1975.

"[In 1975] we got lots of support from his peers and students at COS," Hupp said. "It was a shock because Visalia was so much smaller then."

According to a 1975 Advance-Register article, more than 500 mourners attended Snelling's funeral. It was one of the largest in the history of Miller's Chapel, owner Paul Miller said.

After the slaying, Snelling's students prepared a memorial edition of The Campus, the community college newspaper. A COS memorial scholarship fund and a journalism news award were also created in his name.

No copies of The Campus dated around the time of the murder are available.

Since the news of DeAngelo's arrest, Hupp and her family have received calls and messages from old classmates, family, friends and community members, she said.

"It's great news," Hupp said. "It's a great relief to me and my family."

Almost 43 years later, Hupp has four children and two grandchildren. She said she thinks her father would be proud of his family.

"I think he would be so proud of how my life has turned out as well as my brothers and their families [lives]," Hupp said. "We're just focused on raising our kids the best way we know how."

Hupp said while her father's killer took so much from the family, they are now finally able to gain back a sense of security.

"People would always ask my mom 'doesn't it bother you that they never caught him?' and she would always say he would get his judgment in the end from God. We turned it all over to God," she added. "Better late than never."