A suspected California serial killer who committed at least 12 homicides and 45 rapes throughout the state in the 1970s and '80s was identified Wednesday as a former police officer, an official said.
A law enforcement official identified Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who was fired from the Auburn Police Department, as the Golden State Killer.
The official confirmed the identity on condition of anonymity before an official news conference Wednesday.
Authorities arrested DeAngelo Wednesday morning in connection with the case, a law enforcement source told Sacramento's KTXL-TV. DeAngelo has been charged with two counts of murder, the source said Wednesday.
"It is the most prolific unsolved serial killing case probably in modern history," Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert told the television station.
The Sacramento Bee said that, over the years, the Golden State Killer has also been called the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker, and the Diamond Knot Killer, while going undetected for decades.
"This defendant has been able to live free in a nice suburb in Sacramento. Our team's going to work hard the make sure he never gets out," Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
The Golden State Killer has long been the subject of media interest. Before she died in 2016, true crime writer Michelle McNamara had long followed the case with the help of investigators examining the case.
Her book, "I'll Be Gone in the Dark," was finished by Billy Jensen, Paul Haynes, and McNamara's husband, comedian Patton Oswalt, this year, The Daily Beast wrote.
According to The New York Times, the book comprised an exhaustive investigation into the identity of the alleged serial killer, and it reached No. 1 on the newspaper's best-seller list in April.
"I think you got him, Michelle," Oswalt said in an Instagram post Wednesday on a flight from Chicago to New York.
Authorities believe the Golden State Killer committed at least nine sexual assaults in Sacramento, six in Rancho Cordova and Citrus Heights, four in Carmichael, three in Davis, two in Orangevale and one in Antelope between June 1976 and July 1978, according to the Bee.
Jane Carson-Sandler, who was sexually assaulted at knifepoint by a man believed to be the East Area Rapist in 1976, said Wednesday she has been contacted by two detectives about the suspect's arrest, the Bee said.
"It is time for all victims to grieve and to take measure one last time to bring closure to the anguish that we have all suffered for the last 40-some odd years," said Bruce Herrington, brother of victim Keith Herrington at the press conference. "It is time for the victims to begin to heal. So long overdue.
"To the entire reservoir of victims out there, my sadness is with you, Herrington said. "For the 51 ladies who were brutally raped. In this crime scene, sleep better tonight.He isn't coming through the window. He's now in jail. And he's history."
The Associated Press and Newsmax's Cathy Burke contributed to this report.