All language subtitles for Very.Scary.People.S01E05.HMAX.WEBRip.DD2.0.x264-hdalx.en

Hagan: Does she live alone?

Does she have a roommate?

Does she have a boyfriend?

Burglarizing their home,

going through their personal possessions,

serves his fantasy

that this is actually
a consensual relationship

and he's getting to know them.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

Welcome to "very scary people."

I'm Donnie wahlberg.

The norcal rapist terrorized
northern California

from 1991 to 2006,

his cruel violence causing lasting trauma

and tragically altering lives.

This twisted deviant studies
his victims...

Their patterns, their habits.

He slips into their homes
when they're away,

memorizing the rooms
and planning his ambush.

Elusive and careful, for a long time,

it seemed like norcal was unstoppable,

but he left key evidence at every scene.

Who is the norcal rapist,
and how has he been able

to get away with his reign
of terror for so long?

This is part one of
"the phantom predator."

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

Schubert: For over 27 years,

the individual who came to be known

as the norcal rapist victimized women

across northern California.

And why has he been able
to get away for so long?

We want to find the bad guys,
and we want to put them in jail.

It's not always that easy, unfortunately.

You always are thinking, you know,

"will they ever get this guy?"

It's something that never
left my head, still to this day.

It could be 10 seconds, it could
be an hour of thinking about it,

fantasizing about getting a call

that he was caught every day
of my life for 27 years.

It began in 1991.

Cold cases often become
a journey for justice

for law enforcement,

prosecutors,
crime victims, their families,

and, in many cases, for the communities

that were so deeply
affected by that crime.

♪♪♪

Earnest-payte:
Who was I in 1991?

I was a fairly typical 21-year-old.

Had a pretty active social life.

Had a lot of friends.

I was a hairstylist.

I've always been a very hard worker,

so I worked a lot of hours,

and that was pretty much my life.

Jordan: Life was good

for 21-year-old Nicole earnest-payte.

She had a really good job.

She owned her own condo in rohnert park,

which is about 30 miles north
of San Francisco.

Earnest-payte:
I did not have a roommate.

My ex-boyfriend had moved out.

I had the mortgage to pay,

so I actually had put an advertisement

out for a roommate,

but I was living alone for about...

Probably about six weeks.

It was a Saturday,

and that's the biggest day
of the week for hairstylists.

I had been working all day,

and I came home to my condo
completely exhausted.

Jordan: Nicole gets home
from her long day.

She sinks into the sofa.

She doesn't have much furniture
since her boyfriend moved out,

and she just starts watching TV.

Before she knows it,
she's passed out on the sofa.

Earnest-payte:
I woke up to a masked man

who had his arm around my neck,

my shoulders... the top of me, like this.

And he very calmly said,
"don't make a sound.

I have a gun.
I'm not going to hurt you.

I just want your money."

And I was thinking in my head,

"okay, he's just here
to Rob me."

Jordan: Having a gun pointed at
you by a masked intruder

in your own home is terrifying,

but for Nicole,
the nightmare is just beginning.

Earnest-payte:
He eventually took me upstairs

and then told me
to get on the bed facedown.

I was bound.

He was really careful to make
sure I wasn't harmed...

You know, that my hair
wasn't in the duct tape.

And then he put a pillowcase
around my head.

I really did, at this point,
still think he was

just there to Rob.

I could hear him rifling through stuff.

There was a specific item
that he was looking for

that I had borrowed

that I no longer had in my home

and had not been in my home for weeks.

♪♪♪

"Where is it?
I know you have it.

Where is it? Where is it?
Where is it? Where is it?"

And that's when I knew, "oh, my god.

He's been in my house.

He must have been, or has been
watching me or something."

Arutt: Stalking is an obsessive
and compulsive activity

where somebody is delving
into private matters

of somebody else
that are not their business,

and they create a world in their own mind

where there is much more
going on between them

than the other person even knows.

He's turned on music

and started saying,
"these could be our love songs.

These are our songs."

And I just thought, "oh, my god!

He actually thinks I'm his
girlfriend or something."

Hagan: In his mind, he believes,
because of the amount of time

he has invested in watching this woman

and being in her apartment or her house,

that he really knows her.

He has a personal relationship with her,

but she does not have a
personal relationship with him.

I had been facedown the whole time,

and then that's when he
cut me loose and turned me over

and started to take everything off.

And that's when I realized
I wasn't getting out of it.

I was raped multiple times
throughout the night.

And I thought that he was
eventually gonna shoot me

and kill me.

I kept visualizing my parents
getting that phone call,

which is, to this day, the only
thing that makes me still cry.

I can't explain how terrifying
it is as a 21-year-old woman

to think the torture my parents
are gonna have to go through.

♪♪♪

He had stolen my atm card,

so I knew he wanted to get to the bank.

As he was leaving, he said,

"you should lock your doors from now on.

Somebody might come in
and try and hurt you"

and then walked out the door.

And that was like a knife in my chest

because it was mocking me
and basically laughing, like,

"what an idiot that she left
her back door unlocked."

Arutt: To assault somebody
and terrorize her for hours

and then say,

"you know, you really should
lock your door.

Somebody might come in
and try to hurt you."

That's almost gloating,

and she probably wondered
for the rest of her life

whether her doors had
actually been locked or not.

Earnest-payte: I called
my mother. She was so calm.

She just kicked right into gear

of "I need you
to call the police, sweetie."

They escorted me to the hospital.

A few days later,
I had the formal sitdown

with the detectives from rohnert park.

They just didn't believe it at all.

They thought I made up the story.

The entire time they
were interviewing me,

they were questioning
every bit of it as though

I was this crazy person
making up this horrible story.

It was the most horrendous experience

I've ever been through.

They came short of calling me,
you know, a whore.

Jordan: What Nicole went through
was her worst nightmare...

Being raped, but then not being believed

and then knowing
that this masked intruder

was out there somewhere,

maybe ready to come back and get her,

was absolutely debilitating.

But Nicole was determined that
this was not going to break her.

Earnest-payte: I wanted to make
sure that I picked myself up.

I picked myself up very quickly

and marched right back into my life,

but it was very altered.

For quite a while, I wouldn't
go anywhere alone

because I was convinced

that he was watching and would come back.

Jordan: December 1991,
a 42-year-old woman in sonoma

was awakened at about 1:30
in the morning

by a man wearing a mask.

I thought, "oh, my god.
This is the same person."

Jordan: 21-year-old
Nicole earnest-payte

is sexually attacked

in her own home
in rohnert park, California.

It's June of 1991,

and then, six months later,
another attack.

Earnest-payte: When this
happened again in sonoma,

and I read it in the paper,
I thought, "oh, my god.

This is the same person."

Jordan: December 1991,

a 42-year-old woman
in sonoma, California,

was awakened at about 1:30
in the morning

by a man wearing a mask.

According to the sheriff's
spokesperson, Spencer crum,

he tied her up and he raped her twice.

After he raped her,
detectives say that he drove her

to a local atm,

where he forced her to withdraw money,

and then took her back to her house.

Crum said that DNA evidence
was collected at the scene,

and the victim said it felt
like someone was stalking her

because he knew
so many things about her life.

Gagliano: How do we collect DNA
in rape cases?

Well, you can collect it
from a lot of trace evidence

from somebody's body,
whether it's a hair follicle

or whether or not
it's saliva, semen, blood,

any type of bodily fluids.

And even if somebody touches something,

there is organic DNA material on a knife

or the handle of a pistol

a rapist or a murderer might use.

And if the rapist leaves his DNA
at a crime scene today,

there is no doubt in my mind

that that person will be
brought to justice.

Jordan: So you have these two
separate sexual-assault cases,

one in June of '91
and then the next in December,

and they are both in sonoma
county but 20 miles apart.

There are similarities,
but there are differences,

and then you have another attack
that happens in 1992.

In 1992, I was living alone in vallejo.

I was going to school
to be a firefighter,

and I was working for fedex.

I also was trying to get
my EMT certificate,

so I was pretty busy.

My sister had just bought
a brand-new house

that just got built in vallejo and said,

"do you want to just
live there by yourself?"

And I was like, "okay."

Little did she know
that a sexual predator

was tracking her movements.

Lane: It was on February 13th,

around 8:20,
8:30 in the morning.

I walked out of the bedroom,

and then there is this guy
in the bathroom

with the black ski mask.

So I ran into the bedroom.

He jumped on me,
and I was trying to fight him,

and he had a knife,
so I grabbed the knife.

I didn't know, but...
You know, what I was doing

because he was on top of me
and, you know...

And I just was trying to...

Just trying to do whatever I could to...

To escape, you know?

And I know he did say,
you know, "you cut me."

When he put his hand over my mouth,

I couldn't breathe anymore.

I couldn't fight anymore.

And then he, um...
He tied my arms and my legs up.

♪♪♪

You know, he raped me
probably three times, for sure.

It was just like I was just,
um, kind of numb, you know?

Yeah, I-I remember at times
just told him to just kill me,

get it over with.

I wasn't exactly scared of dying.

I was just... just scared of,
you know, what was gonna happen.

What was he gonna do next?

Because, to me, laying there
and going through that...

Probably dying would have been better

than... him being there, so...

So I was just...

Doing everything I could to just...

...to survive.

♪♪♪

I think most of us can't even
imagine what it would be like

to go through something
like these victims endured

and how life-changing it is for them,

how it changes their...
Their perception of the world

and that they don't feel safe anymore.

Lane:
I know he was talking a lot.

He was asking me questions,
but I never...

Never seen his face.

He took a shower.

He used my hairbrush.

He was going through my purse,
and he had my phone book.

I remember him saying, you know,
"if you call the cops,

I'm gonna call this person.

I'm gonna do this
and I'm gonna do that."

♪♪♪

Jordan: Before the attacker
leaves, he takes a necklace

that she's wearing off her neck.

Why?

So that he has a trophy of his conquest.

It is sick.

Trophies become memorabilia
for that individual of a time

that was very important
to them, very erotic for them,

very satisfying for them,
so, with that in mind,

they don't easily part
with their trophies.

As soon as I was able to untie myself,

I called the cops

and then I called my neighbor.

Cops came right away.

One of the cops said that he probably was

in my house before the incident.

What he did was cut a hole
through the drywall

in the garage and stuck his hand
through the drywall

and then opened the door,
you know, and unlocked it,

'cause... 'cause it was locked.

Gagliano: This was clearly
a well-thought-out crime

and one he had clearly prepared for to...

To open up a piece of sheetrock
to require that sawing

and then to be able to come back in later

in order to conduct the crime

so the victim would not
hear them coming in.

He literally planned it and executed it

just like it was a military operation.

Arutt:
The watching and the stalking

is incredibly creepy.

It's such a violation of privacy,

and to be watching not just as a voyeur

because somebody enjoyed watching

but to be watching
with the intent of figuring out

how to commit further crimes
against that person

is incredibly creepy.

Lane: Every day was a struggle,
but I just kept going.

I had a lot of therapy,
and I said, "you know what?

This person is not going to
put me in my own jail."

But what he did will always be with me.

Smith: With any crime,

there's going to be mistakes
made by the suspect.

All I can say is that there was
evidence left at the scene.

Gafni: It was a particularly
horrific crime.

It's just the stuff that
horror movies are made out of.

Police have three different rape cases

happening in three different
northern California towns.

You have different agencies.

You'll have different jurisdictions

that were working these crimes
in different counties

where these rapes happened.

Investigators are looking to
collect physical evidence,

whether it's a rape swab it for DNA

or in the instance where
he was stabbed and his blood...

There's liquid DNA

right there to help track
down the perpetrator.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

[Insects chirping]

Halloween night in 1996 in Martinez,

and this involved a woman
who was basically on her couch.

Just late that night,
she hears the doorbell.

[Doorbell rings]

She thinks, "oh, it's probably
just a straggler."

Jordan: And she gets up and
answers and opens the door

because, of course, she assumes

it's just a late-night trick-or-treater.

♪♪♪

Gafni:
She answers the door...

...and there's a man
in a skeleton mask.

Totally in fitting with
a Halloween costume,

and he wastes no time.

He jumps on her, attacks her.

It's just the stuff that
horror movies are made out of.

It's just terrible.

Jackson: He overpowers her.

He gets inside the house.

He binds her like the other three people,

and he rapes her repeatedly.

Gafni: One thing that
investigators told me

that was really of note for that case

was he was very evidence-specific.

Some people, in the heat of the moment,

are just gonna not think
twice about evidence

left behind or anything like that,

where he wound up taking, like, bedding

and trying to cover up
his DNA profile, potentially.

And, like the first attack,

he once again steals
the victim's atm card.

Then, several weeks after the attack,

he takes his emotional
torture a step further.

Police say that he actually
phones the victim at work.

And he apologizes.

Calling her work to see
how she was or to...

Ostensibly, to apologize was
another act of terrorizing her.

It is an expression of dominance
and power and control.

"See? I can find you again
any time I want to."

Gafni: Once the Martinez assault
happened,

they had another DNA profile,
and it's at that point

where the investigators
from contra costa county say,

"hey, this DNA matches
another sexual assault

four years earlier in 1992."

And they had these separate
individual sexual assaults

happening that had
very similar kind of m.0.S...

You know, bindings,
multiple sexual assaults.

But this is the first time they said,

"okay, we got a singular person
doing these crimes."

Arutt:
He was an intelligent criminal,

planning these assaults,

and so he would stalk in order
to get enough information

to really be able to confidently
go into this person's home

and stay there for hours,

knowing that he was going to
be able to not be interrupted.

Gafni: This is the worst type
of case

for law enforcement to solve.

Stranger rapes are very rare.

Normally, a sexual assault
happens with someone you know,

which makes it easier to solve, frankly,

because you have
a narrowed list of people

who could be the suspects.

But here these are total strangers.

Nothing to go on.

It starts in the early '90s,

when DNA investigation
is sort of in its infancy,

and it's bouncing around
from different counties,

different jurisdictions for police.

It's harder to find those common links

and those common threads.

When he went to the atm,
he was caught on surveillance

wearing a clear, plastic Halloween mask.

Gagliano: Criminals...
They're gonna make mistakes.

They think they're smarter than we are,

but that's not always the case.

♪♪♪

Investigators working
the norcal rapist case

are gathering evidence left
behind at the crime scenes.

Detectives are studying the similarities

in the norcal rapist's m.0...

How he threatens, the weapons he uses,

and the atm cards he steals from
the women after each attack.

Investigators are building a profile

to narrow down possible suspects,

and now they've got his DNA.

But norcal is about to strike again.

♪♪♪

Jordan: It's January 25, 1997,
when the rapist strikes again,

but this time it's different.

It's a pair of roommates

who live together in Davis, California.

They hear a noise downstairs.

[Floorboards creaking]

[Light switch clicks]

They don't make anything of it

and just go back
to their individual rooms

and go to sleep.

♪♪♪

Lipelt: I was an investigator,
detective,

at the Davis police department in 1997.

[Door creaks]

And was called to the scene the morning

of that particular sexual assault.

He was well planned
when he did this violent crime.

He brought things with him, we know...

The binding materials,

most of which he took
with him when he left.

He knew what he was doing,
what he wanted to do,

and he carried it out
in a very detailed manner.

He did a number of things,
including turning on a radio

to cover any sounds that were being made.

He put a blanket over a window
so nobody could see in.

He put a chair in front of the door,

wedged it in so that nobody
could walk in on him...

That sort of thing.

Jordan: Something interesting
is happening here

with these rapes in '96 and '97.

It would appear his m.0.
Is actually evolving.

The first three of his victims
were all Caucasian women,

but, starting with number four,
they are petite Asian women.

He could have simply discovered
a sexual preference

for Asian women.

However, Asian women are
very often petite

and slight and weigh very little,

so there's a vulnerability aspect

because they tend to be so small.

He is making sure he risks
nothing in being overpowered.

Lipelt: He knew how he wanted
to interact with his victims

in the way he approached them
and the things he said to them.

I think he had a picture
in his mind of his relationship

to these victims,
and I do believe, in his heart,

he wanted to leave them thinking
that he was not such a bad guy.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

Jordan:
The pattern does continue,

because one of the victims
that he tied up and terrified...

He took her atm card

and made her give him the pin,
and, remember,

that relinquishing of the security pin

is part of the power and control.

Was it about the money?
I don't think so.

It was almost like
adding insult to injury.

"Now not only have I been
inside your body,

I'm getting inside your bank account.

There is nothing left of you

that I haven't touched,
which I can't control."

And getting that card
and taking her money

was really almost like
the torturous icing on the cake.

"Even after I've left,
I'm going to victimize you."

Lipelt: The main thing is use
whatever you can to try

and identify who this guy is.

We put out a letter to all
the banks stating we knew

that the victims' card were taken,

along with their pin numbers,

so first we had to find out
if the cards were used

and, if so, where were they used?

So, here we worked with the
banks, the security system.

We knew the cards, of course,
that the victims had.

We contacted those people,
and in fairly short order...

I'm talking over a two-,
three-day period...

We knew where the cards were
used and what was drawn out.

Jackson:
So when he went to the atm,

he was caught on surveillance
at that time,

at about 7:30 A.M.,

wearing a clear, plastic Halloween mask.

Reporter: Police have
surveillance video

of the rape suspect
using a victim's atm card.

A mask distorts his face.

So, could this be the break in the case?

Could this surveillance video
help police pinpoint

the man who had been raping people

in northern California for six years?

Jordan: Not only do they have
an idea what he looks like,

but they have blood from the stabbing.

Now they can check the DNA
from that blood

and see if it matches the other rapes.

♪♪♪

Police from all of these
multiple jurisdictions

in northern California,
from rohnert park to Davis,

they'd all been loosely working

to solve their individual crimes.

At one point, the norcal rapist
slipped up

and allowed himself
to be caught on camera.

We were able to get a photo of
him while he was using the atm.

Unfortunately, he was wearing
an opaque mask

that would distort
the features of your face,

so we weren't able to get
a clear understanding

of what this person looked like.

Jordan: The norcal rapist...
What he has going for him

is that he's kind of hiding
in plain sight.

He's operating in his comfort zone.

He cases these girls.
He stalks them.

He knows their routines.

O'Toole:
This is the kind of case,

really, from a victim's standpoint,

like, this is your worst nightmare.

Hahn: I think a lot of crimes
are crimes of happenstance.

You come across it and you do something.

This is clearly not what
the norcal rapist did.

He planned his crime.

He knew exactly what he was doing,

and he victimized these women

in some of the worst ways you can think.

This instilled fear in the communities.

I mean, people changed
the way they lived.

They no longer felt like being
at home alone or locked doors

that maybe they didn't lock before.

It's terrifying to know that
somebody like that is out there

and they haven't been able to catch him.

Just shocked that it was
that close to home.

Mm, it's a little scary.

And it impacted vast areas,
numerous communities,

simply because of the fear instilled

by the crimes committed.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

Anderson: In 1997, I was 21,

and I was a college student
at chico state.

I had a job as a counselor at that time.

I was studying psychology.

I was really close to graduating.

My life was fun.

Jordan: Maki is bright.

She loves going out and
socializing with her sister...

A confident young woman.

Anderson:
I was living by myself

in an apartment
called paradise apartments,

and I had actually just broken
up with my very first boyfriend.

And this is important because it means

he's not gonna be
coming over to her apartment.

She is probably very vulnerable.

Hagan: When an offender stalks
a victim,

burglarizing their home,

going through their personal possessions,

being able to look at their photographs,

it increases his comfort level
because he knows the floor plan.

He knows how to get in
and how to get out.

Anderson: I'd come home, and
things would be out of place.

I'd notice that my photo albums
would be moved

or certain things weren't
exactly where I had put them.

And I thought it was my ex-boyfriend

going into my house.

The night of the attack,

me and my sister
had gone to the bear in chico.

It was a really popular place
to go dancing.

I actually got home late,

and then I went into the kitchen
to make myself some toast,

and I looked at my sliding glass door

and felt like somebody was there,

but then just kind of dismissed
it quickly, thinking,

"oh, it's nothing," and then
decided I would go to bed.

♪♪♪

It was only a couple hours later
that I was woken up

with a gun to my head
and his hand covering my mouth,

and he told me to, you know,

shut up and not scream or he'd kill me.

His hand was over her mouth,

and he very clearly threatened her

that if she screamed,
if she made a sound,

he would not hesitate to kill her.

Anderson:
I thought I was gonna die.

He starts tying her wrists

and her ankles with zip ties and ropes.

♪♪♪

I remember when he was binding
my wrists and my hands,

I'd I... I left a little bit of space

so that I had wriggle room.

I just pretended like I was
holding a ball in my hand

so that I would have
the ability to escape.

He covered my eyes in duct tape.

♪♪♪

He kept going in and out of the room.

He was going through my things.

All I could think of was how to get free.

So every time he'd leave the room,

I'd work harder on loosening the bindings

and trying to get
the tape off of my mouth.

It was a fight-or-flight response,

and I decided to fight.

Maki is determined,
and she actually does succeed

in freeing herself of those restraints.

Anderson: I just kept putting
saliva all over the duct tape

so that it would be easier to tear off.

I got free, but then he came in

and... and tried to make
the bindings tighter.

I just remember him being really angry.

Jordan:
Is he going to get his revenge

on her escape attempt by killing her now?

Some offenders will flee if
the victim physically resists,

while others will increase violence

and severely injure the victim.

When something like that happens,

you just think of the worst,

and I thought for sure I would be dead.

I didn't think I would survive
that night.

♪♪♪

He walked into the room,
and I was able to see his face,

and I just told him, "you better run.

I'm gonna get you.
You better leave."

♪♪♪

Jackson: 1997, maki Anderson
is fighting for her life.

The norcal rapist ties her up.

Notwithstanding being tied up,
she breaks free.

He finds her.
He ties her up again.

But she continues to try to escape.

Anderson: The second time
that I got free,

I was able to sit up.
My arms were free.

My face was uncovered.

And he walked into the room,
and I was able to see his face.

I just told him, "you better run.

I'm gonna get you.
You better leave."

And it looked like he was going to,

and then he changed his mind
and started charging me.

And I grabbed the scissors
and stabbed him.

I didn't have it in me to kill him.

I could have killed him,

but I didn't have it in me to kill him.

That seemed to only upset him.

He got really angry, and...

And he was more forceful after that.

Maki is a fighter.
She has tried to escape twice.

She's managed to stab her attacker.

But he still seems determined
to rape her.

In order to prevent myself
from getting raped,

I lied and told him I was pregnant.

I told him, "please don't
hurt the baby."

I kept bringing up "the baby,"
and, fortunately, it worked.

I-I was... I was sexually assaulted,

which, you know, is still bad,
but I was spared rape.

Arutt: In maki's case, for her
to say she was pregnant,

it did humanize her
for him in that moment.

People have to dehumanize their victim

in order to be able
to commit crimes against them.

Whatever his association
was to pregnancy,

there had to be
something positive in there

that made him draw some kind of a line

in terms of what he was going to do.

♪♪♪

Anderson:
I was so tired by then.

It had been hours.

And I started nodding off
because he was gone

and I was just waiting.

I didn't know if he was gonna
come back in again

or if he had left.

I just kept working on trying
to get free,

and I just got the tape off of
my mouth and got my hands free,

and then I got my legs free
and threw on some clothes

and jumped out the bedroom window

and ran to the manager's
office to get help.

And she brought me into her office

and called the police right away.

They came within seconds.

I was able to give them
a good enough description

in order for them to draw a sketch

of what he could look like.

Thanks to maki's bravery
and quick thinking,

police finally have a sketch
of the norcal rapist.

Not only do they have an idea
of what he looks like,

but they have blood from the stabbing.

Now they can check the DNA
from that blood

and see if it matches the other rapes.

Gafni: It was particularly after
the chico assault happened,

where he left blood DNA at the
scene, where that matched up,

and then I think it was at
that point they were like,

"okay, we have a serial rapist
here on our hands."

Gagliano: But now that you know
it's a serial rapist there,

that's why it's important, then,

to bring your resources together.

You have the information.

DNA linked the different
scenes in different areas.

Now you've got to do the link analysis.

Find other things that link in.

Investigations are Jigsaw puzzles.

It's getting enough pieces

that you can identify
the person responsible.

O'Toole: These offenders are not
perfect 100% of the time.

They make mistakes.

Investigators are trained
to look for those subtleties,

those mistakes that even
serial offenders make.

There are no perfect crimes.
People make mistakes.

Criminals are no different.

They think they're smarter than we are,

but that's not always the case.

I lived in fear for a really long time.

I constantly was looking
in my rearview mirror

while I was driving, trying to figure out

if he was following me or not.

It was hard.

It... it hasn't been an easy journey.

But I'm glad I'm alive.

Beery: One of the victims
actually told me...

She said, "every time a male

comes in to where I work,

if he's about the right age
and about the right everything,"

she says, "I think to myself,
'is that him?'"

and so to have to live
your life that way,

always looking over your shoulder

and always wondering, it has to be...

It has to be really difficult.

For cops, you want to bring
closure for that person.

You want to arrest the bad guys.

Those victims will always be
forever scarred.

Their life will never, ever,
ever, ever be the same.

So, in a lot of instances where
people have long crime sprees

like the norcal rapist,

they think they're safe because
they haven't been arrested.

It's never too long.

It's never too late.

The long arm of the law
is gonna find you.

Beery: It almost is like
a ticking time bomb

because you know
it's going to happen again.

You don't know where,
and you don't know when.

♪♪♪

The norcal rapist has gotten so confident

with his 15-year rape spree

that he is beginning to screw up.

He's made a big mistake.

Right now a serial rapist
is on the loose.

And Sacramento police have new evidence

this guy has been
attacking women for years.

I have said many times that
DNA is the greatest tool

ever given to law enforcement
to find the truth.

Jackson: This technology's
groundbreaking.

It's eye-opening.

It was like, "holy cow.

This is the person that
I've been wondering about

for the last 12 years."

By 1997, the norcal rapist had committed

at least seven vicious attacks.

News of his rampage spread
fear throughout the communities

of northern California.

Women did not feel safe
in their own homes.

No one knew when he would strike next.

Could forensic science
finally break the case

and give detectives the evidence
they needed to make an arrest?

The hunt for the norcal rapist continues

in part two of
"the phantom predator."

I'm Donnie wahlberg.

Thanks for watching
"very scary people."