Fresno mother waits 40 years to learn her son was allegedly murdered by Golden State Killer

Loretta Maggiore received a call on Wednesday she never expected to get. After 40 years, police arrested the man suspected of killing her son and daughter-in-law.

"Relief," Maggiore, 83, said, describing her reaction. "All these years, I was hoping he was dead already … I'm glad they got him. I'm thrilled to death."

Brian and Katie Maggiore's killer was known by many names: the Golden State Killer, the East Area Rapist, the Visalia Ransacker. FBI agents and a detective on Tuesday arrested 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo in his Citrus Heights home. He was charged in the Maggiores' killing on Wednesday.

Brian, 21, and Katie, 20, grew up in Fresno. Brian graduated from Fresno High School, and Katie graduated from McLane High. They were married in July 1976.

Brian joined the U.S. Air Force and was stationed in Alaska before being stationed at Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento.

The Maggiores were walking their dog about 9 p.m. Feb. 2, 1978 in the neighborhood near their apartment on LaVerta Court in Rancho Cordova. During their walk, they encountered a man and ended up in the backyard of a residence in the 10100 block of La Gloria Drive, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.

The encounter turned violent and the couple fled through a blown-down fence into the rear yard of a home in the 10100 block of La Alegria Drive, the street immediately to the north. They were each shot and died of their wounds at a nearby hospital.

Investigators believe the man they encountered was the East Area Rapist, who was active in Sacramento from 1976 to 1978. The Maggiores’ murder was the last time he struck in the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department’s jurisdiction. But he continued attacks in the east and south Bay Area, before committing several murders in Southern California. The DNA in both series was linked in 2001.

All these years, Loretta Maggiore said she's thought of her son every day.

"The kids always wondered how many kids he would’ve had, what he would look like, and just growing up — what would he be like?" she said in a phone interview with The Bee on Thursday. "He would’ve been 61 this year."

Loretta said that, in her mind, her son's killer was dead. "I made him dead in my mind for so long," she said. "I really never thought about it. I just missed my son."

When the detective called her yesterday, she started crying before she hung up. "I couldn’t even tell anybody for a couple hours. It was such a shock. I’m better now. I had a rough yesterday," she said.

Loretta congratulated the investigators and thanked them for working on the case all these years so she could have closure.

This story was originally published April 26, 2018 at 1:22 PM with the headline "Fresno mother waits 40 years to learn her son was allegedly murdered by Golden State Killer."