Golden State Killer case was cold for years. Michelle McNamara kept the story alive.
Oak Park, Ill., native Michelle McNamara researched the Golden State Killer for years.
She even wrote a New York Times best-selling book about the man who raped and murdered dozens from 1976 to 1986 in Southern California, "I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer."
Last week, a suspect was arrested in the case, but McNamara wasn't here to see it. The true-crime writer died unexpectedly in her sleep in 2016, leaving it to friends and family to celebrate her determination to see what she saw as a "solvable case" solved.
"When everyone woke up to that news, we were like, 'Holy s _," said Kera Bolonik, a Brooklyn resident and friend of McNamara's
