Familiarity with Neighborhood

Closing argument of prosecutor David Tellman to the jury.

• DeAngelo was an Auburn Police Officer from August, 1976-July, 1979. 

• Although he left Exeter PD as a Sergeant, assigned to investigate burglaries and major crimes, he never rose above patrol officer in Auburn. At APD, he conducted initial scene investigations on traffic accidents, shoplifting calls, and a couple of residential burglaries, but must of his time was spent on nuisance complaints. 

•During this same period of time, DeAngelo committed about 50 EAR attacks across northern CA, and killed Brian & Katie Maggiore in Rancho Cordova. 

• For three years, a serial rapist and killer also patrolled the Kovacich neighborhood with a gun, badge, uniform, and police car. 

Closing argument of prosecutor David Tellman to the jury.

A few days before DeAngelo responded to the call at the community pool behind the Kovacich home, he was committing this crime:

• EAR Attack - July 6, 1978 - Thursday, 2:50 am, Amador Ave., Davis 

33 yr-old female, two children present.  This residence was located approximately 700 feet from another EAR attack (6/24/78). DeAngelo removed a window screen and used a screwdriver to break a small hole in the kitchen window at the rear of the residence to make entry.  Armed with a gun and a knife from her kitchen, DeAngelo confronted the victim in her bedroom. 

Two notable points:  The Davis attack location is a 108-mile round trip from Auburn; and, Officer DeAngelo worked a patrol shift the evening of that attack. 

He issued a citation to a woman who was shoplifting a carton of cigarettes from the Alpine Market at 5:00 pm, and was called to a domestic violence dispute at 6:00 pm

Closing argument of prosecutor David Tellman to the jury.

•DeAngelo handled multiple calls in the Kovacich neighborhood during his entire three years with Auburn PD, mostly for minor events, or bizarre anonymous calls that may have simply been cover for his prowling activities while on duty.

DeAngelo was busy with EAR attacks and scouting trips just prior to his next call to the Kovacich neighborhood:

• EAR Attack - October 7, 1978 - Saturday, 2:30 am,  Belann Court, Concord. Home located on a cul-de-sac across from a park. 

•Couple, F 26 yrs, M 29 yrs. Female victim was 5' 3" 115 lbs, with long brown hair parted in the middle. DeAngelo had broken into the house while the victims were out for the evening by making a small hole in a sliding living room window, prying the lock, and replacing the window screen before he departed. DeAngelo left the front door to the home unlocked, but the male victim discovered it before he went to bed, and relocked it. 

•DeAngelo woke the victims armed  with a revolver, and said he just wanted food and money until he had them both tied up. Repeatedly asked the victim where he could find her purse. 

•The location is a 210-mile round trip from DeAngelo’s home, and there were several reports of prowlers at nearby homes in the month leading up to the attack, indicating that DeAngelo made the trip multiple times while working normal shifts at APD.

• EAR Attack - October 13, 1978 - Friday, 4:30 am, Ryan Road, Concord, CA

Couple F 29 yrs, petite brunette with long brown hair, parted in the middle. M 30 yrs. DeAngelo approached the couple with a gun, saying he just needed food and money, and threatened to “blow their heads off,” if they did not comply. Locked the couple’s child in the bathroom, and moved a dresser in front of the door.

DeAngelo unplugged the TV, and closed the drapes. Location was a few blocks from the October 7th attack, above. 

• EAR Attack - October 28, 1978 - Saturday, 4:30 am, Montclair Place, San Ramon, CA

Couple, F 23 yrs, 5'6" 115 lbs, long brown hair parted in the middle. M 24 yrs. Toddler asleep in another room.

DeAngelo was Armed with gun, and a knife. Said he just wanted money. The forensic field investigation team found several window screens with bent corners, and a cut screen on an unlocked sliding living room window. DeAngelo turned off the heat, and left an empty Coors carton on the kitchen counter.

Location is a 250-mile round trip from Auburn. 

• EAR Attack - November 4, 1978 - Saturday 3:45 am, Havenwood Drive, San Jose, CA 

Victim was a 34-yr-old woman, home alone with her infant. Petite brunette. DeAngelo told her he just wanted food and money until she was tied up. DeAngelo was armed with a knife. 

That location is a 300-mile round trip from Auburn. 

• In December of 1978, DeAngelo committed EAR attacks on a couple in San Jose, and a single woman living on a cul-de-sac in Danville—located across the Iron Horse Trail from Susan Jacobson’s family home. 

• DeAngelo was working regular patrol shifts all around Auburn, including the Kovacich neighborhood, and then driving hundreds of miles to prowl, burglarize and attack in East Bay communities. 

• He never “left the area” of Sacramento... he simply spent his off hours speeding up and down I-80. 

• In early 1979, DeAngelo became obsessed with attacking one couple in Fremont, CA—this was a 300-mile trip from his home in Auburn. 

• The couple made multiple prowler reports to the police in the months leading up to the EAR attack on Wednesday, April 4, 1979 at 1:00 am.

•The female victim was a 27-yr-old petite brunette, with long hair parted in the middle. DeAngelo broke into the house while the couple were out to dinner. The next door neighbor heard a noise around 8:00 pm, and took a flashlight out to check the neighbor’s house, but didn’t see anything. 

•DeAngelo had made a hole in a sliding window at the rear of the home, but could not pry the lock. Another broken sliding window was found in a spare bedroom, but the lock held there as well. It appeared that DeAngelo was finally able to pry open the sliding door in the family room to gain entry, and he then left the slider in the master bedroom unlocked, replaced the window screens to hide the damage, and waited for the couple to return home and go to sleep before reentering the bedroom with a gun.

•DeAngelo spent his Auburn PD shift on the night of April 2nd supervising Officer Butts, who would later take the missing persons report on Janet Kovacich. 

• EAR Attack - June 2, 1979 - Saturday, 11:34 pm,  El Divisadero Drive, Walnut Creek. 

•19-yr-old female babysitter taking care of two sleeping children. DeAngelo was armed with a knife, and confronted the victim at the kitchen table. DeAngelo had been stalking her for months despite the fact that it was a 215-mile round trip from his home. He repeatedly called her residence (not attack location), and had broken into her home and taken a nightgown from her bedroom. At some point, he detected her usual Saturday night babysitting location. 

•Three nights later, at 11:00 pm DeAngelo was back at the community pool behind the Kovacich house supposedly responding to another “anonymous” call. 

•Less than a week later, on Monday, June 11, 1979  at 4:00 am, DeAngelo was on Allegheny Drive in Danville attacking a couple while armed  with a revolver. 

In addition to DeAngelo’s documented patrols of the Forest Court neighborhood:

• He had at least one close family friend living on that same cul-de-sac in 1982. In 1968-71, Joe DeAngelo, his step-father, and his younger brother all worked for the Burgard family at their company, Sierra Crane. In 1982, the Burgard daughter, Faith Hodkin, was recently married, and lived at 323 Forest Court. 

•DeAngelo had a pattern of attacking on the same block as friends, family members, prior victims, and enemies. This seemed to have one of two motives: to terrorize people who he didn’t like and make them feel unsafe in their own home; or, to be asked to do an anti-burglary check, and advise on making the home more secure, which also created an opening to have conversations about his own crimes. This included his former fiancee, four in-law households (including when one moved to Stockton), his siblings, his best friend, and the friends’ parents.