“I struggle with insomnia,” she explained, “and when I can’t sleep, I sleuth around for good EAR suspects. I don’t know what your system is, if any, but I’ve been doing two things—running down names in the Goleta cemetery, and running names gleaned from alumni lists from multiple schools in Irvine, particularly the Northwood neighborhood. Not counting sheep, exactly, but hypnotic in its own way.”
The results of Michelle’s insomnia were laid bare on her hard drive:
Old maps and aerial photographs of Goleta, used to compare against the “homework” evidence map
Images of the soles of shoes and bindings from the crime scenes
An analysis of the turf-plugger tool, possibly used in the Domingo murder
A folder bursting at the seams about the Visalia Ransacker, and theories she was putting forth to connect him to EAR-ONS
There was a list of some specific items taken from the victims of the East Area Rapist:
Silver Dollar “MISSILE”
Silver Dollar “M.S.R.” 8.8.72
Ring with “For my angel” 1.11.70
One set of cuff links, yellow gold, initial “NR” in script
Man’s gold ring, 80 pt diamond, square shape, 3 gold nuggets
Ring “[redacted] Always [redacted]” 2.11.71
Gold initial ring WSJ
Antique silver spoon ring by Prelude by International
Class ring Lycoming College 1965
As well as a note mentioning that the rapist had a particular penchant for clock radios, having stolen five of them.
Nestled among the array was a spreadsheet containing the names and addresses of the 1976 Dos Pueblos High School cross country team, a rabbit hole she went down with the thought that the EAR might have been a young runner with muscular legs.
One document was titled “Possibly Interesting People.” It was a list pasted together over time, with notes and nuggets added as Michelle ran down the names and birth dates of potential suspects. Some of the fragments retained the tag “Sent from my iPhone”—betraying its contents’ origin as a quick note to self while Michelle was killing time at a movie premiere.
In another notepad, she wrote: “Don’t underestimate the fantasy: not raping in front of men—afraid of male; functional; privacy , writhing male not part of his fantasy. Mommy and crying. No remorse. Probably part of fantasy.”
There were even notes on her own psychology:
He was a compulsive prowler and searcher. We, who hunt him, suffer from the same affliction. He peered through windows. I tap “return.” Return. Return. Click Mouse click, mouse click.
Rats search for their own food.
The hunt is the adrenaline rush, not the catch. He’s the fake shark in Jaws, barely seen so doubly feared.
Michelle would reach out to witnesses from the old reports if she felt there was some detail left unelaborated or a nagging question the investigators neglected to ask. One of those witnesses was Andrew Marquette.*
The night of June 10, 1979, was an especially hot one, and Marquette had left his bedroom window open to catch a breeze while he tried to sleep. Around midnight, he heard the crunch of footsteps on the rock path beneath his window. He peered out and saw a stranger creeping slowly alongside his house, his eyes fixed on the window of his neighbors. Marquette looked into the same window and could see the couple that lived there putting their child to bed.
Marquette continued observing the subject as he slunk toward a pine tree and receded into the grassy darkness. He fetched a .22 pistol he kept near his bed and racked the slide. It was a sound the prowler must have recognized, as he immediately sprang into motion and scrambled over the fence into the front yard. Marquette went to his neighbors’ house and knocked on the front door. No one answered.
He returned the pistol to his house and began heading back next door to try his neighbors’ again. Midway there, a passing car’s headlights swept across the homes on the north side of the block and briefly illuminated the prowler, who was now on a bike, leaning against a house. As Marquette started to approach, the subject began pedaling furiously across the lawn, fleeing from Marquette and disappearing into the night. Marquette called the police. They cruised up and down the neighborhood, searching for the prowler to no avail.
Several hours later, the forty-seventh EAR attack occurred half a block away. Investigators reconnected with Marquette during the canvass, and he told the same story.
The prowler was a white male in his twenties with collar-length hair, wearing Levi’s and a dark-colored T-shirt—consistent with what the latest EAR victim described. The bicycle on which the prowler had fled was found abandoned later that morning, several blocks away, next to an Olympia beer can from the victim’s fridge. Investigators quickly realized that this was the same bike stolen several hours before the attack from an open garage a mile away. Near that garage, detectives found a pair of white, knotted shoelaces.
Michelle felt that Marquette was someone worth reinterviewing. She contacted him in late 2015.
She sent him a map she had sketched, along with her understanding of the schematic of that night’s events, and asked him to confirm and amend where appropriate. Paul compiled a seventeen-picture photo lineup, and Michelle asked Marquette which of the individuals most closely resembled the man he saw that night.
On the phone, she asked Marquette to spit out the first word that came to mind to describe the prowler he observed. Marquette replied without missing a beat: “Schoolboy.”
In a 2011 file called “EAR CLUES,” Michelle attempted to consolidate many of the known facts about the man into a profile:
Physically he’s most often described as 5′ 9″ to 5′ 11″, with a swimmer’s build. Lean, but with a muscular chest and noticeably big calves. Very small penis, both narrow and short. 9–9? shoe size. Dirty blond hair. Bigger than normal nose. Type A blood type, nonsecretor.
He used the phone to contact his victims, sometimes before an attack, sometimes after. Sometimes just hang-up phone calls. Sometimes with theatrical, scary-movie deep breathing and threats.
He wore ski masks. He brought guns. He had what looked like a pen style navigator flashlight, and he liked to startle his victims awake by beaming it at them, blinding them. He tore towels into strips, or used shoelaces, to bind victims.
He had a script, and he stuck to it. Some variation of, “Do what I say, or I’ll kill you.” He alleged he only wanted money and food. Sometimes he said it was for his apartment. Other times he mentioned his van. He would make the woman tie up the man, then separate them. Sometimes he’d stack dishes on the man’s back and tell him if he heard a crash he’d kill the female victim.
He frequently brought baby lotion to the scene to use as a lubricant.
He liked to steal neighborhood bicycles and escape on them.
Some personal items associated with him: a bag with a long zipper, like a doctor’s bag, or duffel bag; blue tennis shoes; motocross gloves; corduroy pants.
He took driver’s licenses and jewelry, particularly rings.
Some of the things he said, which may or may not be true but are nevertheless interesting: Killing someone in Bakersfield; moving back to LA; “I hate you, Bonnie”; being thrown out of the Air Force.
Something may have been going on with him in late October 1977. In two different attacks around then he was described as sobbing.
Some of the vehicles possibly associated with EAR-ONS: green Chevy van, 1960s yellow sidestep pickup truck, VW bug.
An e-mail forwarded to Michelle by Patton reveals that she had even enlisted her father-in-law, a career US Marine, to do some research on military bases in the area back then, as there was a theory that the rapist might have been an airman.
Begin forwarded message:
From: Larry Oswalt
Date: April 18, 2011, 2:01:06 PM PDT
To: Patton
Subject: Air Force Bases around Sacramento
Mom said Michelle had some questions about Air Force Bases around
Sacramento. Here is the list.
Near Sacramento:
McLellan closed 2001
Mather Closed 1993
Beale still active—40 miles north of Sacramento
Travis is located in Fairfield, CA sort of north of San Francisco and a good ways from Sacramento.
Let me know if you need any additional info.