A silicon valley marketer whose father and stepmother were battered to death by the Golden State Killer has spoken of her disbelief after police arrested the man they believe is responsible.
Jennifer Carole’s had just graduated from high school when father Lyman Smith, 43, and 33-year-old wife Charlene were found dead in their home in March, 1980.
Now, almost four decades later, police have arrested Joseph James DeAngelo and named him as the infamous serial killer.
Jennifer Carole, a silicon valley marketer, has spoken of her shock after police arrested the Golden State Killer, who is suspected of killing her father and stepmother 40 years ago
Lyman Smith, 43, and second wife Charlene, 33, were found tied together and beaten to death in their Ventura home in 1980. Before being killed, Charlene was raped
Carole said the news has left her ‘in shock’ and struggling to cope.
Speaking to The Sun from the Santa Cruz home she shares with her own daughter, she said: ‘I’m incredulous that he was caught – that we have a human being who is still alive.
‘To help me cope I always imagined he was dead just to manage my feelings about it.
‘But it turns out he may have been very much alive and living in an area where I went to college and where my family live in Sacramento. It’s mindblowing.’
Police say Jospeh James DeAngelo is the Golden State Killer and have charged him with six counts of murder
Turning to what happens next, Carole said she wants DeAngelo to confess to spare the victims the ordeal of a trial, and she wants to see him jailed for life in the general prison population ‘so he knows what it’s like to be afraid’.
She added that she would also like the attention to be focused on the victims, not just on DeAngelo, because she believes he will simply revel in the attention.
‘He had a lot of arrogance during the crimes and he’s got away with it for a long time,’ she added.
Lyman Smith was an accomplished lawyer who was just days away from being appointed a Ventura County Superior Court judge when he was found dead at home.
Smith had been tied to his wife, Charlene, using drapery cords before the pair were beaten to death with a log from their fireplace, the Santa Paula Times reported.
At some point before being murdered, Charlene was raped by the killer. The couple was found by their 12-year-old son, Gary.
Neighbors of DeAngelo described him as a private, elderly man who was prone to swearing in public and fits of anger
Police initially suspected one of Smith’s business partners or Charlene’s lover, but 20 years after the killings DNA evidence linked them to the Golden State murders.
On Wednesday, police say fresh DNA evidence collected from outside DeAngelo’s home revealed he was the man they were after.
The Golden State Killer has been implicated in 12 murders and at least 50 rapes across the state of California. DeAngelo so far faces six counts of murder.
DeAngelo is a Vietnam War veteran, former police officer and grandfather who neighbors say was prone to fits of anger.