Joseph DeAngelo's arrest has caused cops to take a fresh look at another cold case investigation.
The recent arrest of a man who police say is the notorious Golden State Killer has some investigators taking a fresh look at another string of cold case murders.
Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested April 24 and named as a suspect in the Golden State Killer case — a series of a dozen murders and some 50 sexual assaults that gripped California in the 1970s and '80s.
But around that same time, another series of murders that began in 1979 had authorities in and around Santa Barbara struggling to identify a suspect. Those four brutal slayings, and two attempted murders, were believed to have been committed by one man police dubbed the "Original Night Stalker."
In a bid to determine whether DeAngelo is connected to the Original Night Stalker murders, police have asked anyone who recalls seeing DeAngelo in the Santa Barbara County area from between 1978 and 1986 to contact authorities.
The first of those incidents occurred in October 1979 when a couple was attacked during a home invasion in Goleta.
While they survived, Dr. Debra Alexandria Manning, 35, and her husband, Dr. Robert Offerman, 44, weren't so luckily during a similar attack months later, which led to their deaths.
Then, two years later, 35-year-old Cheri Domingo and 27-year-old Gregory Sanchez were also murdered inside a Santa Barbara area home.
In their request for the public's help catching the Original Night Stalker, the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office referred to DeAngelo as a "suspect."
"The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in establishing a timeline for the ongoing investigation involving the murders," the statement reads. "The suspect, 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo of Citrus Heights, California, was believed to be in Santa Barbara County between the years of 1978 and 1986, specifically the areas ranging from Santa Maria to Carpinteria."
The Santa Barbara Police Department has released photos of DeAngelo, who was once a police officer, and a sketch of the Original Night Stalker from the seventies.
"If you believe you saw him anywhere in Santa Barbara County, or personally know him, please contact the Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Bureau," the statement reads.
Since his arrest, DeAngelo has been charged with four murders in Orange County, two more killings in Ventura County and two in Sacramento County.
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