The Golden State killer may have had an accomplice in some of his crimes over his decade of terror in California, a detective credited with helping solve the case told the Sacramento Bee this week.
Retired detective Paul Holes told the newspaper that two people could have been involved with some of the earlier crimes. Former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested last month in connection with murders, rapes and burglaries in Northern and Southern California from 1976 to 1986.
"Those of us who are familiar with the case files recognize that is a possibility," Holes said to the Bee. "I've always just held open the possibility of a second person assisting in a few cases, but not being active through the whole series."
Holes told the Bee that there are four cases connected with the East Area Rapist where victims heard the suspect speaking to someone else. He told the newspaper that one victim thought she heard a second voice in another case.
The Golden State Killer, also known as the East Area Rapist, is believed to have committed 12 killings and at least 50 rapes in at least 10 counties in California, CNN reported. The case gained renewed interest because of the work of late writer Michelle McNamara, whose book "I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer," was released this year after her death.
Holes said the suspect could have been talking to himself as a way to manipulate his victims, but said there is a possibility that a second perpetrator might also have been present, as a driver or lookout, the Bee wrote.
The theory of an accomplice has been rejected by Sacramento Sheriff's Department spokesman Sgt. Shaun Hampton, calling the suggestion "absolutely not true," the Bee reported.
"According to Sacramento County Sheriff's Department homicide detective Sergeant Ken Clark, the sole suspect behind all of these alleged crimes is Joseph DeAngelo," Hampton told the Bee.
The newspaper said that Clark is the lead investigator in the case for Sacramento County.