Michelle McNamara isn’t here to see the Golden State Killer be brought to justice, but those closest to the late true crime author are remembering her invaluable contributions to the case.
On Friday, Aug. 21, convicted serial killer and rapist Joseph DeAngelo was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The judge’s decision marked the conclusion to a decades-long search for the man who committed at least 13 murders and 50 rapes across California between 1973 and 1986. McNamara dedicated her final years to investigating the case, and her posthumous book, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, inspired the HBO docu-series of the same name.
Comedian Patton Oswalt, who was married to McNamara at the time of her unexpected passing in April 2016, addressed DeAngelo’s long-awaited sentencing on Twitter.
“The insect gets none of my headspace today,” he wrote. “I’m thinking of the victims, and the survivors, and the witnesses and crusaders and investigators. And of course Michelle. Go forward in peace, all of you.”
