r/coldcases

Between 1974 and 1986, a man broke into homes across California while families slept. He bound husbands and made them listen. He raped women. He murdered 13 people. He operated across 11 counties under different names — the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker. Eventually they connected every case and gave him one name. The Golden State Killer. For decades investigators had DNA from multiple crime scenes. They had no match. No name. No face. Here's what makes this case different from every other cold case. During his first series of crimes in Visalia in 1974, the local police department formed a task force to catch the Visalia Ransacker. One of the officers assigned to that task force was Joseph James DeAngelo. He was the Ransacker. He was investigating himself. He went on to rape at least 50 women and murder 13 people over the next 12 years. Then he stopped. He retired. He became a grandfather. He lived quietly in a suburb of Sacramento for three more decades. In 2018 investigators uploaded the DNA profile from a crime scene to a public genealogy website. It matched a distant relative of DeAngelo. They built a family tree. They narrowed it by age and location. They surveilled him. They collected DNA from a tissue he left in his trash can. It matched. On April 24, 2018, police arrested Joseph James DeAngelo in his front yard. He was 72 years old, dressed in a T-shirt and cargo shorts. He did not resist. In June 2020 he pleaded guilty to 13 murders and admitted to 161 total crimes against 48 victims. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He is still alive. The DNA that caught him had existed at crime scenes since the 1970s. The technology to trace it through a family tree didn't exist until 2017. Forty years of victims' families waiting for an answer that was always in the evidence. Source: ABC News — Inside the Timeline of Crimes: The Golden State Killer (abcnews.go.com) What finally catching the Golden State Killer proved — genetic genealogy has now been used to identify over 150 suspects in cold cases across the United States. How do you feel about uploading your DNA to public databases knowing law enforcement can access it?

Stacy Moskowitz was 19 years old. It was July 31 1977. She was on her first date with Robert Violante parked near a city park in Bath Beach Brooklyn.

They were kissing when a man approached within three feet of the car and fired four shots. Violante lost his left eye. Stacy died in hospital the following day from her injuries.

She was the sixth and final victim of David Berkowitz — the Son of Sam.

For 13 months before that night Berkowitz had terrorized New York City. Always couples. Always parked in cars at night. Always a .44 caliber revolver. He sent taunting letters to newspapers and police signing them Son of Sam.

The city was paralyzed with fear. Women cut their hair because most of his victims were brunettes. Couples stopped going out at night.

The NYPD response was massive. Operation Omega. Three hundred detectives. Over a million tips processed. The largest manhunt in New York City history. None of it caught him.

What caught him was a witness who noticed two patrol officers writing parking tickets near the crime scene the night Stacy was shot. One ticket was issued to a cream colored Ford Galaxie illegally parked in front of a fire hydrant.

The car belonged to David Berkowitz.

Detectives traced the plate to a postal worker living in Yonkers. On August 10 1977 ten days after Stacy was shot they went to his apartment building. Through his car window they could see a handgun on the back seat. They searched the vehicle and found a duffel bag containing ammunition, maps of every single crime scene, and a threatening letter addressed to the commander of the Son of Sam task force.

When Berkowitz walked out of his building detectives were waiting. He looked at them and said "Well, you got me."

He was sentenced to 365 years in prison. He is still alive today. He has been denied parole every single time he has applied.

Stacy Moskowitz was the only blonde among his victims. She was also the last. The parking ticket written the night she was shot ended the biggest manhunt in New York City history ten days later.

Three hundred detectives for 13 months. A parking ticket in ten days.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David\_Berkowitz

How many other cases are sitting unsolved right now because nobody checked something this simple?

Did you know my sister Wanda Line in 1982-1983?

Please comment on this post or message me privately. I’m especially looking for anyone who was talking to her from November 1983 until her murder on January 3, 1984.

She was murdered in Columbus, Ohio.

Her last job was at the Looking Kool (Octoberish 1983 until murder on 1/3/1984).

She worked at LeVeque Tower (spring to fall 1983) before that and “suddenly left.” If you know why she left please message me.

If you worked at either place during the timeframe I noted, please message or comment. If you have older family or friends who may have known her or worked at these places please share with them.

If you knew a Gus C. Sariotis or Lena Jo Riley (both deceased) who lived on Gairlock Drive let me know. She lived at his house with both of them for a period of time.

Links to her case on the attorney general's website and video about it can be found below.

https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Files/Law-Enforcement/Investigator/Cold-Case/Homicides/Line

https://youtu.be/XKsmRhScEjI?si=5c83oIXRBNp74F6m