Golden State Killer suspect charged with 13th murder

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A former US police officer accused of being California’s notorious Golden State Killer was charged on Monday with a 13th murder.

Believed to be one of the state's most elusive serial killers, who terrorized northern California in the 1970s and 1980s, Joseph DeAngelo, 72, was arrested in April and initially charged with 12 killings going back decades.

On Monday, prosecutors added a charge of first-degree murder in the 1975 killing of community college teacher Claude Snelling, who was shot while stopping the kidnapping of his 16-year-old daughter in Visalia.

Police say they have physical evidence linking DeAngelo to the killing of Snelling but didn't elaborate.

"We have taken that first step in providing justice not only for the victim's family but for this community as a whole," Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward said.

Joseph DeAngelo, 72, accused of being the Golden State Killer, appears at his arraignment in Sacramento, California, April 27, 2018. /VCG Photo

DeAngelo's attorney Diane Howard did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Detectives are confident that DeAngelo is also a burglar known as the Visalia Ransacker, who struck more than 100 homes in the 1970s, terrorizing the farming community about 64 kilometers south of Fresno, Visalia police Chief Jason Salazar said.

DeAngelo worked as a police officer in the nearby town of Exeter from 1973 to 1976.

Investigators determined the gun used to kill Snelling was taken during one of the thefts.

DeAngelo is also suspected of committing roughly 50 rapes but he can't be tried on those crimes or the burglaries because the statute of limitations has expired.

Shortly after Snelling was killed, DeAngelo moved and joined the Auburn Police Department outside Sacramento.

He was fired from that police department in 1979 after he was caught shoplifting a hammer and dog repellent, authorities said.

Authorities finally arrested DeAngelo in April at his Citrus Heights home and said they believed he was the killer who had long proved elusive to authorities.

(Top picture: Sgt. Paul Belli of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department speaks to the media in Sacramento, California, June 15, 2016, after authorities announce a national campaign to apprehend the Golden State Killer. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): AP