A new kind of DNA analysis changes everything. After learning how genetic genealogy helped identify an unknown victim in a kidnapping case, Paul Holes begins to wonder whether the same method could be used to find the Golden State Killer. Working with a small team, he uses an SNP profile to identify distant relatives and build family trees that may ultimately lead to a name. After decades of dead ends, the case begins to move with astonishing speed – culminating in, at last, the arrest of Joseph D’Angelo.

Years after stepping away from the case, Paul is pulled back in. The files are still there. The case is still unsolved. And a suspect emerges who seems to fit. Paul Holes spends years chasing this man he believes could be the Golden State Killer, only for DNA to prove him wrong. We learn all about false leads, investigative humility, and the emotional toll of a case that followed Paul into every part of his life.

The crimes continue in Southern California, with the murders of Manuela Witthuhn and Janelle Cruz. Paul Holes explains how the offender’s violence evolved, how patterns emerged across cases, and how investigators eventually linked the East Area Rapist attacks in Northern California to the Original Night Stalker homicides in the south. For a moment, Paul believes the case may finally be solved. Instead, the investigation enters another long silence.

After the East Area Rapist disappears from Northern California, an attack with a similar MO happens hundreds of miles away in Goleta. At the time, investigators had no reason to connect it to the Sacramento series. Paul Holes helps us understand the shift into Southern California, the jurisdictional gaps, and the violence of the Lyman and Charlene Smith case. Years later, evidence from this phase will become critical to identifying the Golden State Killer.

The East Area Rapist did not stop terrorizing victims when he left their homes. Paul Holes walks us through the phone calls, threats, and psychological cruelty inflicted on the victims long after the attacks. This episode explores fear as part of the offender’s pattern. Paul also traces the final Northern California attacks and the moment the series abruptly stops in the north before starting up again somewhere else in the state.

As fear spreads through Sacramento, the public demands answers. Communities hold meetings. Newspapers cover the case. And all the while, Paul Holes believes the East Area Rapist was likely watching closely. In this episode, we examine a chilling turning point in the series: the first known attack with a man present in the home, and the possibility that the offender targeted that couple after a town hall comment. The case draws more public attention, and the crimes become more calculated.

The case moves into Cordova Meadows, a Sacramento-area neighborhood that became key to understanding the East Area Rapist. Through maps, geography, victimology, and old case files, Paul Holes explains how the offender’s movements revealed familiarity, planning, and confidence. What may have looked random from the outside begins to look very different when Paul studies the streets, fences, backyards, and anchor points that help shape the investigation.

The crimes move north, and a new name emerges: the East Area Rapist. Paul Holes explains how the offender’s behavior changed after Visalia, how early attacks in the Sacramento area unfolded, and how investigators struggled to understand whether they were dealing with a new offender or just someone who had evolved. As the crime spree expands, Paul begins to unpack one of the most disturbing facts of the case: Joseph DeAngelo was a police officer.

Paul Holes begins the story in 1970s Visalia, California, when the Golden State Killer was just beginning to make a name for himself. Before the East Area Rapist, before the Original Night Stalker, there was the Visalia Ransacker, a prolific offender breaking into homes and leaving fear behind. Paul walks Yeardley, Dan, and Dave through the early crimes, the killing of Claude Snelling, the shooting of Officer McGowan, and the case files that first pulled Paul into what would become a career-defining 24-year pursuit.