"You’re long past leaping over a fence. Take one of your hyper, gulping breaths. Clench your teeth. Inch timidly toward the insistent bell. This is how it ends for you."
These are the words of Michelle McNamara, a mystery writer who coined the name "Golden State Killer" and the late wife of comedian Patton Oswalt, written toward the Golden State Killer — a man allegedly responsible for approximately 45 rapes and 12 murders in California whose identity was unknown until Wednesday.
McNamara was fascinated with unsolved mysteries and obsessed with the Golden State Killer, also known as the East Area Rapist and Original Night Stalker (EAR/ONS). She authored "I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer" but she died in 2016 at age 46 before she could finish the book.
Oswalt stepped in to help realize his late-wife's vision and the book was finally published in February. Now, the suspect for the crimes has been arrested, according to law enforcement sources. And Oswalt said he would like to speak to the Golden State Killer.
"Not to gloat or gawk — to ask him the questions" that McNamara wanted answered in her "Letter To An Old Man" at the end of her book, Oswalt wrote on Twitter.
An ex-police officer named Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who appears to fit the description of the elusive California killer, was arrested overnight on two murder charges by police in Sacramento, just two days into the filming of the documentary on the gruesome crimes, according to Oswalt.
Golden State Killer: Evidence, Victims in Decades-Old Case
"You did it Michelle," Oswalt said in an Instagram video Wednesday ahead of an appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers."
He added that police "are never gonna say it but your book helped get this thing closed."
Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones had said earlier in the day that McNamara's work had "kept interest in tips coming in" but that "there was no information extracted from that book that directly led to the apprehension," The Associated Press reported.
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Speaking on Meyers, Oswalt said news of the arrest "feels like this thing that she wanted so badly is now done."
Fans of McNamara also praised her work and contribution on social media after the details of the arrest were reported. Many lament how McNamara died before she got to see the results of the life's work.
"It is heartbreaking that Michelle McNamara did not live to see her lifelong pursuit bear fruit," wrote actor James Woods.
Now investigators "can start linking [DeAngelo] to all these other cases," Oswalt told Meyers.
