Victims’ daughter speaks out after ‘Golden State Killer’ caught

For Jennifer Carole, the tsunami of emotions first began as a downpour of text messages early yesterday morning, telling her that the capture of the East Area Rapist was caught.

It has been 38 years since Carole’s brother found the bodies of her father Lyman and her stepmother Charlene, on their bed, covered with a sheet inside their home in Ventura. Their attacker had snuck in through a side door, sexually assaulted Charlene and then bludgeoned them to death with a log.

“I know that Charlene went through hell and her rape pattern fit what he did to other people,” Carole said. “It was awful and it lasted a long time and they were tied up. She was bound as tight as the other people were bound, they said their hands were bound so tight, their hands turned black, is how tight he tied them. Then he would untie the ankles and rape the women.”

Carole was 18 at the time, and has walled off that part of her life, until now. She didn’t think they’d catch the killer, and was horrified to know they were likely in Sacramento at the same time, when she was also living and going to school.

She hopes he confesses, and avoids a drawn out trial that will shower him with attention, but she says she does not want the death penalty.

“I still want him in general population,” Carole said. “I want him to be very uncomfortable. I want him to be consistently afraid and I think in general population, I think he will be afraid with every breath he takes. That would be satisfying. I want him to live in the fear he inflicted on others.”