Sweet vindication for retired detective who first linked Visalia Ransacker to East Area Rapist

For retired Visalia police Sgt. John Vaughan, the announcement Monday that a murder charge had been filed in Tulare County Superior Court against Joseph DeAngelo, the alleged Golden State Killer, was sweet vindication.

The Tulare County District Attorney’s Office charged DeAngelo with the 1975 homicide of Claude Snelling, who was shot and killed in his home by the Visalia Ransacker as he attempted to kidnap Snelling’s teen daughter.

In the 1970s, Vaughan was in charge of the Snelling homicide investigation and Ransacker cases.

“I always believed it to be true” that the Visalia Ransacker and East Area Rapist, who commenced a reign of terror in Sacramento County beginning in July 1976, were the same person, Vaughan said when reached by phone Monday.

In announcing the murder charge against DeAnglo, Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward put a bow on the theory: “With this filing, we have officially linked the Visalia Ransacker to be the same individual that is known as the East Area Rapist.”

The East Area Rapist was later identified via DNA evidence as the so-called Golden State Killer.

When the Visalia Ransacker disappeared in late 1975 but the East Area Rapist started his reign of terror in Rancho Cordova in mid-1976, Vaughan and detectives William McGowan and Duane Shipley immediately noticed similarities, such as the theft of minor items.

They journeyed to Sacramento County to make the case the Visalia Ransaker and the East Area Rapist were one and the same. They got the brush off.

“They said we were publicity seekers,” and the sheriff didn’t want to scare the population, Vaughan said. “They never saw the connection; we saw it right away.”

McGowan and Shipley have since died. But the work they did on the case in the 1970s has held up beautifully as more clues emerged, Vaughan said.

“I’m sorry McGowan and Shipley aren’t here” for this day, he said.

Visalia Police Chief Jason Salazar said everyone at the police department feels a sense of pride that a murder charge has been filed in the Snelling homicide.

“This is something that for 44 years sort of haunted Visalia in a way,” Salazar said. “You’ve always heard about the Ransacker and the Snelling homicide. We’ve always had someone assigned to work the case. To finally have some answer, to know some of these details, to put some justice to it, it feels great.”

In April, DeAngelo was arrested in Sacramento County after investigators followed DNA clues in the Golden State Killer homicides to identify him as the suspect.

With his arrest, DeAngelo immediately became a suspect in the Snelling homicide. A detective has been working full-time on the case since then, Salazar said.

“It feels good to confirm our suspicions were right all along,” Salazar said.

Lewis Griswold: 559-441-6104, @fb_LewGriswold

This story was originally published August 13, 2018 at 5:39 PM.