Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Paul Holes Opens Up About Michelle McNamara: ‘She Became My Investigative Partner’
The retired investigator told Dr. Oz that the author who coined the name “Golden State Killer” was instrumental in solving the case.
Paul Holes has gotten a lot of credit for helping to identify a suspect in the Golden State Killer case, who is thought to have been responsible for more than 50 rapes and 13 murders in California during the 1970s and 80s.
And while the man who many consider a hero has always been generous sharing the spotlight with others he worked with on the case, he made a special point of sharing some of the glory with the late true crime writer Michelle McNamara on an episode of “The Dr. Oz Show” which aired Tuesday.
Before she passed away in 2016, McNamara chronicled her fascination with the case in the book, “I’ll Be Gone In The Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search For The Golden State Killer.”
Holes, who recently signed a development deal with Oxygen, told Dr. Oz that when McNamara first called, he was in “just the facts, ma’am” mode.
“She starts asking me questions about the case, and I gave her the standards responses … vague, nebulous responses, and she’d call me out on it,” Holes said. “I recognized she knows this case much better than the typical person would who would call me.”
McNamara published an article about the case in Los Angeles Magazine in 2013 and then continued to work on the book.
“Over the next three years working the case together, she became my investigative partner until she unfortunately passed away,” Holes said.
Authorities arrested Joseph DeAngelo, 72, in April after Holes and other investigators took DNA from a crime scene and built a fake genetic profile on GEDmatch, a genealogy site, which led to distant relatives. A team of investigators then spent months combing through public records to piece together potential family trees.
DeAngelo currently awaits trial on 13 murder charges.
When DeAngelo was arrested, comedian Patton Oswalt, who was married to McNamara, took to Twitter to celebrate the work of his late wife.
“I think you got him, Michelle,” he tweeted at the time.
[Photos: Oxygen; Harper Collins]
