HBO Announces New Episode Of 'I'll Be Gone In The Dark'

A new episode of “I’ll Be Gone In The Dark” that's expected to focus on two cases connected to late true-crime writer Michelle McNamara will be released next month by HBO. 

The hit docuseries ran through the summer of 2020 and serendipitously ended as the Golden State Killer, the show's subject, was sentenced to life in prison. 

The series chronicled late true crime author Michelle McNamara’s dedication to the case. She had introduced the nation to the Golden State Killer after she wrote a long-form article in 2013 about an unsolved, and a widely unknown, string of murders and rapes committed throughout the 1970s and 80s. She then devoted the rest of her life to trying to unmask the culprit.

McNamara died in 2016. Her book on the case, “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” was published posthumously in 2018.

The Golden State Killer himself, also known as the East Area Rapist and Original Night Stalker, was arrested in 2018. In August, he listened to days-worth of victims impact statements in court. 

The new standalone episode of the series is expected to not only detail the closure of that case but will dive into the 1984 murder of Kathleen Lombardo, Rolling Stone reports. 

McNamara became fascinated with that case when she was 14 and living in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park — the town where the Lombardo was found sexually assaulted and murdered. The killing of the 24-year-old took place just near McNamara’s family home.

“I had no particular interest in crime aside from reading the occasional Nancy Drew book growing up,” McNamara wrote in her book. “Yet two days after the killing, without telling anyone, I walked to the spot near our house where Kathleen had been attacked. On the ground, I saw pieces of her shattered Walkman. I picked them up. I felt no fear, just an electric curiosity, a current of such unexpected, searching force that I can recall every detail about the moment — the smell of newly cut grass, the chipped brown paint of the garage door.”

The Lombardo case remains unsolved.

On June 21, the hour-long episode will air at 10 p.m. on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.