Daughter Of Golden State Killer Victim: 'I Want Him To Live In Fear'
SANTA CRUZ (KPIX 5) – A Bay Area woman whose family was torn apart by the Golden State Killer almost four decades ago talked about the relief she felt from Wednesday's news of Joseph James DeAngelo's arrest and why she doesn't want him on death row.
For Santa Cruz resident Jennifer Carole, the tsunami of emotions began as a deluge of text messages early Wednesday morning, telling her that the capture of the man known as both the Golden State Killer and the East Area Rapist was "all over the news."
"It's been interesting day. Congratulations? Yeah, yes! I guess? Congratulations," said Carole.
In one text, she wrote back, "I'm shaking."
"We found the guy. Like, I wish my grandfather could know. I wish my grandmother could know," Carole.
It has been 38 years since Carole's brother found the bodies of her father Lyman and her stepmother Charlene on their bed, covered with a sheet inside their home in Ventura.
Their attacker had snuck in through a side door, sexually assaulted Charlene and then bludgeoned them to death with a log.
"I know that Charlene went through hell and her rape pattern fit what he did to other people," remembered Carole. "It was awful and it lasted a long time and they were tied up. She was bound as tight as the other people were bound, they said their hands were bound so tight, their hands turned black, is how tight he tied them. And then he would untie the ankles and rape the women."
Carole was 18 at the time, and has walled off that part of her life until now.
She didn't think authorities would ever catch the killer, and was horrified to know they were likely in Sacramento at the same time, when she was also living and going to school.
She said she hopes he confesses and avoids a drawn-out trial that will shower him with attention.
However, she does not want the killer to face the death penalty.
"At 72, I still want him in general population. I want him to be very uncomfortable," said Carole. "I want him to be consistently afraid and I think in general population, I think he will be afraid with every breath he takes. That would be satisfying. I want him to live in the fear he inflicted on others."