I'll Be Gone in the Dark

McNamara describes the murder of Janelle Cruz, an eighteen-year-old girl living in Irvine, California. Cruz has a troubled upbringing, frequently moving cities with her single mother and partaking in drugs. After receiving her high-school diploma from Job Corps, Cruz moves back to her mother’s home in Irvine and works at Bullwinkle’s Restaurant. On May 4, 1986, Cruz, who is home alone while her mother and stepfather are away on vacation, invites a friend from Bullwinkle’s over to the house. The friend eventually leaves for the night. The next morning, a realtor names Linda Sheen discovers Cruz lying dead in her bed, with a blanket covering her body.

Police find that Cruz’ head has been bashed in; she also has dried semen on her leg, suggesting that she has been raped. The police interview neighbors for information but are unable to learn anything that would help identify the murderer. The investigation turns to Cruz’ many boyfriends and romantic attachments, considering them suspects.

One of these boyfriends, Mike Martinez, confesses the crime to his friend Tom. he intends to murder his current girlfriend, Jenny (113). Though Martinez later says he was joking, Tom reports him to the police, who make an arrest. While police find Martinez to be suspicious, the blood samples prove his innocence. At the time, DNA testing is not developed enough to determine whether one of Cruz’ other boyfriends is the killer. However, forensic scientists determine that the murderer has a “rare genetic makeup,” as he fails to “secrete blood-group antigens” in his fluids—making him a “nonsecretor” (115). Scientists are unable to provide more concrete information about the murderer until 10 years later when Mary Hong analyzes the murderer’s DNA evidence. Hong is able to conclusively rule out Cruz’ boyfriends, and links the murder with those of the Harringtons and Witthuhn. 

Realizing the potential of DNA evidence, the Orange County Sherriff’s department creates a unit devoted to investigating unsolved mysteries: the Countywide Law Enforcement Unsolved Element (CLUE). Detective Larry Pool joins CLUE in 1998, and investigates the Harrington, Witthuhn, and Cruz murders. As Pool pours through the case files, he discovers a note about a double-murder committed in Ventura, California in 1980. Lyman and Charlene Smith were killed in a similar fashion to the other murders. Though police initially suspected a friend of the Smiths, Joe Aslip, they closed the case for lack of evidence. Pool has Hong analyze the DNA evidence from the Ventura murders, which allows her to “develop a DNA profile from the semen on the slides” (120). Hong concludes that the same person responsible for the murders of the Harringtons, Witthuhn, and Cruz also murdered the Smiths.  

McNamara describes a series of events occurring in Goleta, a town in Santa Barbara County, California. While leaving for work one morning, a woman named Linda encounters a man claiming that a strange man stabbed his dog. Linda and the man search for evidence, but find only that someone turned on the hose, flooding the yard. Several days later, on October 1, someone breaks into a couple’s home, tying the couple up with the intention of murdering them. However, “a surge of adrenaline” helps the woman break free, and she rushes to the house of her neighbor, an FBI agent (126). The agent chases the assailant, who flees on a 10-speed bicycle. Several months later, Dr. Robert Offerman and Debra Alexandria Manning are murdered in their home. The police find twine and tennis shoe prints at the crime scene that match the intruder of the October 1 incident. 

This section describes the murder of Cheri Domingo and her lover, Gregory Sanchez. Recently divorced, Domingo moves to Santa Barbara with her two children in the summer of 1981 to occupy the empty home of a relative while the house is for sale. Domingo has a troubled relationship with her daughter, Debbi, and the two fight frequently. Debbi is sent to the Klein Bottle Crisis Shelter, which takes in “troubled teens” and provides them with therapy and a place to live (129). Domingo and Debbi have a single therapy session, which ends in the two yelling at each other. Several days later, Debbi calls Domingo from a payphone, asking to come over and pick up a swimsuit. Domingo refuses, and the two scream at each other before hanging up.

The following day, Debbi receives a call from her mom’s friend, instructing Debbi to return home. When Debbi arrives, she finds police investigating a crime scene. Debbi learns that Domingo had been murdered the night before, along with her on-and-off again lover, Sanchez. The GSK had broken in the night before through the guest bathroom. Sanchez heard the killer enter the bedroom, leading to a fight between the two. The GSK then shot Sanchez, before using a gardening tool to bludgeon Domingo to death. While the GSK tied the couple up with ligatures, as in his past murders, “this time…[he] took the ligatures with him…eliminating evidence” (141). At first, the Santa Barbara police suspected Brett Glasby, a “local punk,” but the Orange County police DNA analysis in 2011 ultimately links the Domingo/Sanchez murder to the multiple other murders committed by the GSK (144).

Larry Pool continues to investigate the GSK, suspecting that the killer is responsible for the murders in Goleta, Ventura, Orange County, and Irvine—totaling ten deaths. Many of Pool’s coworkers question his continuing investigation, noting that the GSK has not struck since 1986, suggesting the murderer is either dead or in prison. However, Pool remains fiercely committed to identifying the culprit.

The GSK is particularly remarkable for displaying a sense of calm control throughout his murders, “communicating confident leisure” with his actions (150). These methods suggest that he has years of experience breaking into homes, prior to committing the murders. After Pool fails to turn up any new evidence, he approaches the media with his investigation. He hopes a news story will prompt an individual to come forward with relevant evidence. The Orange County Register’s subsequent article about the GSK names him the “Original Night Stalker,” in reference to the serial murderer Richard Ramirez, whose crimes several earned him the nickname of “Night Stalker”.

Paul Holes, a criminalist who enjoys poring over unsolved case files during his free time, discovers the story of the East Area Rapist (later known as the Golden State Killer). He becomes obsessed with tracking down the criminal. The GSK raped dozens of women in the Sacramento area, before switching to assaulting women in the East Bay area from 1978 to 1979, disappearing afterwards. Holes pulls several rape kits from the GSK’s assaults and analyzes them, allowing him to discover the GSK’s DNA profile. Seeking further information about the GSK’s identity, Holes calls former detectives, asking for possible leads. One detective, Larry Crompton, says he suspected the GSK in a series of Santa Barbara homicides since aspects of the murders matched the GSK’s behavior—but he was unable to follow up because the Santa Barbara police refused to cooperate.

Following Crompton’s tip, Holes eventually gets in touch with the Orange County criminalist Mary Hong. Though Hong and Holes are able to confirm some similarities between the rapist’s and the murderer’s DNA profiles, they cannot declare an exact match at first; the two offices used different DNA testing methods. However, within two years, Holes’ office updates its DNA testing technology. Holes and Hong are now able to confirm that the rapist and the Southern California murderer share the same DNA profile. Holes announces the news to the press, causing a media frenzy about the decades-old case. Two days after the news breaks, one of the GSK’s victims receives a phone call from the GSK, asking if she “remembers when we played?” (166).