Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases

Holes sinks into a depression after Potts proves to be a false lead. He has grown distant from Sherrie, who has tired of hearing about his EAR investigation. Several weeks later, he returns a phone call to Michelle McNamara, a journalist and amateur sleuth who is writing a piece on EARONS for Los Angeles magazine. Holes finds her friendly but gives her little information beyond standard media soundbites.

The phone call, however, renews Holes’s interest in the case. He realizes that in his narrow focus on Potts, he was fitting the suspect to the evidence instead of the reverse. McNamara’s article is published and impresses Holes. In it, she names EARONS The Golden State Killer, or GSK.

A little time goes by, and McNamara calls again: She has been asked to write a book about the Golden State Killer and wants Holes’s opinion as to whether she should pursue this. Holes decides that exposure can only help solve the case. He agrees to show McNamara the areas in Contra Costa County where the crimes occurred. During the eight-hour car trip, a friendship blossoms. Holes agrees to share information with McNamara, and she provides him with autopsy results and crime scene photos from other jurisdictions.

Holes renews his search by focusing on a map found near a railroad track that is thought to have been drawn by the Golden State Killer. It seems to depict a neighborhood but also includes bushes, trees, and details such as HVAC systems. After consulting with several experts, Holes posits that the killer may be someone involved in real estate development. This leads him to a new suspect—a man he assigns the pseudonym Roger Murray. Murray, a wealthy developer, was apprehended by law enforcement for violent crimes against women but never charged Holes shares his suspicions with McNamara, and they talk through Murray’s viability as a suspect.

Holes arranges for an associate to covertly obtain DNA from Murray. It is ruled an inconclusive match to the Golden State Killer. He meets McNamara a few weeks later; she has a new suspect in mind and promises to send Holes some information via email. This is the last time Holes sees McNamara; she passes away in her sleep in April 2016 of an accidental overdose of several substances. Holes explains that she was likely using the drugs to help her sleep, remarking that he understands what it means to be obsessed with the Golden State Killer.

Thanks to McNamara, Holes is finally able to read the case files about the ONS murders. Because so many counties are eager to solve the Golden State Killer case, departments are reluctant to share files with one another, but McNamara had a source in Orange County.

Holes examines the details of the murders, which involved rape—as with the case of the EAR—and then bludgeoning to death. He tracks the killer’s escalation, suspecting that something changed in his life to cause him to escalate to murder. The murders, which began in 1980, abruptly stopped in 1986.

Two years pass, and Holes readies for retirement, having no more leads on the GSK to explore. He learns of an unconventional form of DNA testing that traces genetic linkage between two people. This testing uses a different component of the DNA than the ones that criminal investigators examine. Holes grows excited that this may be a new avenue to uncover the killer’s identity. He consults a genealogist, who agrees to look at the GSK DNA profile.

While he waits to hear back, Holes researches, learning that this form of DNA testing allows comparison to a wider swath of the population. He is stunned to learn the limits of law enforcement DNA testing. Holes wants to search genetic database sites in order to locate a relative of the Golden State Killer. However, he must work through several layers of bureaucracy and legal red tape since this avenue has never been pursued by law enforcement before. With the FBI’s support, Holes is finally able to move forward with this testing. He uses a DNA sample from one of the 1980 murders to set up a fake profile on the genealogy service FamilyTreeDNA. This allows him to see who among the site’s 2.5 million profiles might be related to the Golden State Killer. After this comes the tedious task of tracing family trees to determine potential suspects. The work is an enormous undertaking for Holes and a team of five others. At one point, there are at least 60 possible distant relatives of the killer, all of whom must be researched and traced. Finally, a breakthrough occurs when a second cousin of the GSK is found via a public site called MyHeritage.com.

Through this individual, the list of suspects narrows to those who fit the age and other profile demographics of the killer. The best match is a man named Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer whose name never before came up as a suspect. By this time, it is late March of 2018 and Holes’s retirement date is only two weeks away. Holes frantically begins to investigate DeAngelo, learning that he was fired from the police force when found guilty of shoplifting.

Holes knows he must obtain DNA directly from DeAngelo to prove that he is the killer. With his retirement only a day away, he plans to drive to DeAngelo’s home in Citrus Heights.

In mid-April of 2018, the FBI begins to surveil DeAngelo, following him in his car and swabbing his door handle for DNA. Holes is at dinner with Sherrie, having spent the day house hunting in Colorado, where he plans to spend his retirement. Just then, he receives a call that DeAngelo’s DNA matches the Golden State Killer’s. Holes is instructed to tell no one, but Sherrie suspects the reason for the call.

Holes rushes to Sacramento, where he helps to write the police arrest warrant for DeAngelo while a team tests additional samples to be sure the DNA is correct. DNA from a tissue is a perfect match.

A team is set in motion to bring DeAngelo into custody. The team tries to do so in a public place, fearful that he may have weapons stockpiled in his home. However, when he doesn’t leave, they decide to risk descending on his home and apprehend him without incident.

DeAngelo is brought into a police interrogation room but refuses to speak. Holes and others watch him through the one-way glass for over an hour as he sits, unmoving.

Holes and others walk through DeAngelo’s home before a press conference. Holes notes the way DeAngelo has covered the glowing monitor of a desktop computer, just as he did to television screens during his attacks, according to survivors.

The press conference begins, but Holes ducks out when he realizes that the political strife between jurisdictions is still ongoing and that he will not be credited with unmasking DeAngelo. As he leaves, he receives a phone call from a woman named Mary, DeAngelo’s youngest victim. Holes assures her that the news she heard is true: DeAngelo is the Golden State Killer.

In the years that follow the arrest of DeAngelo, Holes receives hundreds of requests for interviews and television appearances. His media work introduces him to Jim Walker, the brother of Carla Walker, who was abducted and killed as a teenager. After getting to know Jim and witnessing the impact of the murder on him, Holes becomes consumed by Carla’s case.

At home, Sherrie insists Holes receive counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), pointing out how he continues to pull away from his family and become immersed in his cases. He does and begins to learn about how the trauma he has been stifling has impacted him.

By 2020, genetic matching for Carla Walker’s killer has begun. In September, the perpetrator is identified, and Holes takes comfort in knowing he has brought some peace to Jim’s 45-year-long search for Carla’s killer. Holes is determined to continue to investigate cold cases but also to maintain an emotional connection to Sherrie and his children.