Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases

In March 2018, Holes packs up his office in preparation for retirement. He reflects on his first wife’s complaints that he was not mentally present for her and their family during their marriage. Holes has worked for the Contra Costa County Police Department—an area that spans the San Francisco Bay Area—since he was 22. During this time, he has worked numerous high-profile cases, including the death of Laci Peterson and the kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard.

Holes explains that he has always been driven to work on cold cases (cases that are unsolved and no longer being actively investigated) and is most at home when he is occupied by a case’s puzzle. He recalls his older children from his first marriage complaining about him rarely being home and his second wife echoing the concerns of his first.

Holes closes the boxes of his belongings and prepares to leave the building, but he has one more task to complete first.

Holes drives away from his office along the California freeway. He plans to move his family to Colorado but is still uncertain what he will do post-retirement. One of the nation’s biggest cold cases—the identity of a murderer dubbed the Golden State Killer, or GSK—still eats at him. He thinks back to a police recording in which the killer taunted the police. Since hearing the recording, Holes has committed every spare moment to unveiling the killer, driven by the desire to obtain justice for the many still-living victims. Numerous times, Holes has been certain he has identified the killer only to have DNA evidence prove him wrong. He is hopeful, though, that the DNA evidence collected from the Golden State Killer’s victims will eventually identify the culprit.

Holes drives past the home of his latest GSK suspect: a retired police officer named Joseph DeAngelo. Holes studies the house’s neatly manicured exterior, imagining ringing the doorbell and asking DeAngelo for a DNA sample so that he can be eliminated as a suspect. In reality, Holes knows driving past the house is risky, as it could alert DeAngelo to the investigation. Holes drives away, haunted by the fear that his career will end on a blemished note, as he never caught the Golden State Killer.

Holes spends many of his childhood and teen years on a military base in California. He is a socially anxious person and prone to panic attacks that he dreads, thus creating a vicious cycle of fear fueling attacks. He briefly plays football in high school at the behest of a girlfriend, but the relationship is short-lived. Then he befriends Lori, a relaxed and down-to-earth girl whom he dates until college. In college, they remain friends and eventually rekindle the relationship. As graduation approaches, Holes proposes marriage.

As he and Lori prepare for their wedding, Holes stumbles on a booth about criminology at a university career fair. He knows instantly that this is the job he wants to pursue, recalling being taken with the detective show Quincy as a child. He applies for a forensic toxicology position in the Contra Costa County Sherrif’s Office. Though he scores well on the department’s test, he hears nothing more about the position. It is only after he and Lori are married and trying to settle into a life together that he receives a call asking if he is still interested in the position. Holes quits the warehouse job he’d been working on the spot.

Holes is interviewed and given a tour of the lab. Though it is shabby and unimpressive, Holes is excited. He is quickly offered and accepts the position as a drug analyst. His job often requires testifying in court on simple drug cases, and he is pleased that this earns him “expert” status.

Before long, Holes finds himself drawn to watching the criminalists in the department at work. He stumbles on the crime library and reads voraciously, consumed with how science can piece together evidence from crimes. By the time he is 25, Holes is certain he wishes to become a criminal profiler.

In 1993, Holes beats out 50 other candidates for a criminologist position despite his lack of experience. He and his wife have a new baby, and the stress of military training and preparing for his new role, coupled with the baby, take a toll on Holes and Lori. They fight often, though Holes frequently walks away from arguments, fearing confrontation might lead to losing Lori.

In 1994, Holes, having read everything he can get his hands on about criminal investigation, opens an old file cabinet in the office. He reads a file about a serial rapist who attacked eight separate people throughout Contra Costa County. Holes is struck by the survivors’ accounts of their horror and notes that the perpetrator used psychological methods to control them. Excited, he tries to tell Lori about the cold cases that evening, but she is not interested.

Holes later learns that the case—dubbed EAR for East Area Rapist—was never solved, though the crimes stopped suddenly in 1979. Holes is determined to solve this cold case.

As the 1990s unfold, Holes continues to work as a crime scene investigator, combining the position with his scientific training and skills. The first few field cases stick out to him. One involves a young woman disguised as a man found behind a library, while a second case centers on a mother and daughter who run a family restaurant and live in wealthy Orinda. As Holes often misses sleep in order to work, he decides it is too risky to drive home each day and develops a habit of spending the night at work.