DeAngelo's Connection to Irvine/Orange County

[saturnrising]

I won't put any names in this post, although the information on this family name is already out there.

I put some research into this, but there will still probably be mistakes and of course, it will probably be confusing, so bear with me.  It's tricky sorting out which names belong to parents and children, for instance.  Feel free to point out any mistakes you find.

DeAngelo's mother was divorced from his birth father and remarried a man who went by various first names, but I'll use the letter "J".  J was born in and lived a large part of his younger life in the Los Angeles area.  As shown in the 1940 census, he had two younger brothers - they were all three years apart. The brothers, then, would be DeAngelo's step-uncles. The step-uncles lived in various cities, many in Orange County, including Mission Viejo and San Juan Capistrano. 

The youngest brother was employed by several school districts in administrative capacities, including Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.  I will call him U1 (for Uncle No. 1) and the other U2.  Both brothers were married at some point and both have children.  

U1's son is listed in the 1981 Irvine white pages at 151 Pineview in Irvine.  Grantor-Grantee records show that, in 1983, U1 and his wife co-owned this condo property with their son.  I believe at this time U1 lived in San Juan Capistrano.  I don't if they ever lived in this condo, but it is a possibility.

U2 has a grant deed dated 12/27/1984 for a property at 62 Christamon South in Irvine and a reconveyance dated 5/15/86.  This condo is a half-mile from U1's condo.  Both addresses are about a mile to a mile and a half from Manuela Witthuhn's house and Janelle Cruz's house.



Please note Zion Market in the center.  The stores have changed, but this is a shopping center where I believe DeAngelo might have seen either or both of the women.  There are several shops and some fast food.

Anyway, if he was close to his mother and step-father, he may have also been invited to his step-uncles homes as well.  Since Janelle Cruz was murdered during the 1986 El Toro Air Show, DeAngelo, a Navy man, may have visited and stayed with his relatives to see the show.  He may have seen Janelle at the show, at the market, they could have eaten at Bullwinkles . . . but he did possibly have a reason to be there.

Also, U1 lived in San Juan Capistrano, which is just around the corner from the Harrington murders.

*** I have added additional information in a post below.

Attachments:

[ian]

Great find. Wonder if he took the family to Bulwinkles and Jenelle Cruz caught his attention.

Didn't he and his brother live there in the 80s?

What brought him to Goletta?

[looking4clues]

Great connection made. Fascinating!
Over time as more people are spoken to that know him it will be interesting to see how much time he spent with family in the areas of the ONS attacks. I can imagine him going away for fishing trips with people he knows or other such activities and taking advantage of being away from where he was hotly pursued to find new victims.

[ronin]

Amazing work! Really well done research and presentation.

Very curious now about Goleta. Maybe with all these extended/step-family members there was a work or UCSB connection.

[buster]

Excellent map!! His family lived so very close to the murder victims. I recall reading somewhere that a stolen bike from the Harrington's neighborhood was recovered at a motel in San Juan Capistrano. Could he have used this bike to get back to his Uncle's home?! The proximity is chilling.

[Grace5]

This is great!  I, too, am anxious to know the Ventura and Goleta connection. 

Does anyone know anything about his brother?  Records show he lives at [address deleted, by Drifter], Garden Grove.  Someone mentioned he was arrested for attempted burglary.  

[paulaustin]

saturnrising Awesome job. for sure he saw Cruz and Witthuhn while he was visiting his step-uncles

[saturnrising]

I have now found that Janelle Cruz's parents owned property in the same condo complex as U1.  

Michelle Cruz has provided the following information in other threads (edited to show only pertinent information):

Jan 26, 2016 13:37:47 GMT -4 shelly said:
We had 4 homes in Irvine, and they were all in Northwood area . . . When my parent sold that, we moved to Encina where Janelle was killed. I believe my parent bought the townhome in "The Lakes" at around the same time they bought Encina. 

A member asked her for the time period that they lived in each residence:

Jan 26, 2016 15:00:34 GMT -4 shelly said:

estimating....Encina 83-86

The Lakes 83-86

Windstream 81-83

Harrisburg 79-81

More info:

Jan 27, 2016 11:20:29 GMT -4 shelly said:

We stayed at Encina mostly and my parents rented out the townhouse. However, there was a short time (step-father) lived in the Lakes due to mom and him being seperated. Janelle was there for a couple months too.

Feb 6, 2016 12:01:01 GMT -4 shelly said:

I was young.. We didn't live there. Mt step dad lived there briefly, however....

I was able to locate the address of the home the Cruz family owned in "The Lakes" from public records.

"The Lakes" is a 266-unit townhome community in Irvine - I have verified that the image on the map contains the entire development.  U1 & son jointly owned a townhome on Pineview from at least 1983 through at least 1988.  Michelle Cruz's parents owned a townhome on Lakepines until at least the end of 1986.  For privacy, I won't give their address, but I have marked the street area where their townhome was located.



That's all for now. 

Edited to add:  I give up. I can never get pictures to show up.  Here is the link to the map:  Map

[bloit]

Apr 28, 2018 7:29:28 GMT saturnrising said:

U1 & son jointly owned a townhome on Pineview from at least 1983 through at least 1988.  Michelle Cruz's parents owned a townhome on Lakepines until at least the end of 1986.  

Great sleuthing. How could this possibly be a coincidence? There's a community pool in that townhome complex, community tennis courts... Even if Janelle was only there for a few months, if JJD was staying with Uncle 1 or even just working on his property, plenty of opportunities to stumble upon this lovely young girl.


Then there's Manuela, five years earlier but in such close proximity. ... In this older post, Manuela's husband is quoted saying,

"There was a few vacant homes as it was a new housing development at the time. We had contacts with a construction boss to fix defects."

We know JJD's stepdad worked in construction in NoCal at one point... was there some family contractor business in SoCal that JDD briefly worked for? Being a cop had allowed him to prowl extensively, was he now using construction as a means to find new victims?


In that thread it's also noted that Manuela's house had been broken into 4 months before the attacks, and her neighbor's place as well. JJD also staged the Manuela scene to look like a burglary (TV out on the patio). I'm sure at the time he never imagined that the two Irvine crimes would ever be connected.


So was JJD renting a place from Uncle 1, just staying with him, visiting, or working for him? This may finally be the "Irvine connection" people have been searching for.

[SertumAEnigmA]

This brings up another question now, did he know anyone who associated with Witthuhn and Cruz?

One thing that troubled me about the two cases, is how both girls were alone due to certain circumstances- that someone who knew them would know. If he visited or stayed in and around Irvine for substantial periods of time, did he know 'of them'?

We know he stayed at the Cruz house for a substantial period of time. If he surveilled the home like usual, the marine leaves and he attacks her, how did he know that the marine wouldn't return? Obviously it could be argued that he would be prepared for that, but would he have risked it?

When he attacked couples, he knew the house occupants were accounted for upon entry. It just seems very possible that he had some inside information on these two women.

I also wonder if he knew Italian. Especially when he broke into that home where the elderly father from Italy was visiting.

[Cagney]

And if you check my past posting's I always believed that Lakewood, Long Beach area was the answer to the Map! I think Wesley aka Murdoc was the only person that thought that maybe it could have been a possibility. Nobody took me serious and Im sure they won't now.. BUT, let me throw this out. BOUTON LAKE IN Lakewood,Ca. Which is probably a couple miles from the address where the monster lived,looks pretty darn close to the 'lake' on the map. Everyone said NAW! I am wondering if any of his children went to the schools in the area, maybe the papers found were their homework assignments?

[morf13]

Apr 26, 2018 22:51:07 GMT saturnrising said:

I won't put any names in this post, although the information on this family name is already out there.

I put some research into this, but there will still probably be mistakes and of course, it will probably be confusing, so bear with me.  It's tricky sorting out which names belong to parents and children, for instance.  Feel free to point out any mistakes you find.

DeAngelo's mother was divorced from his birth father and remarried a man who went by various first names, but I'll use the letter "J".  J was born in and lived a large part of his younger life in the Los Angeles area.  As shown in the 1940 census, he had two younger brothers - they were all three years apart. The brothers, then, would be DeAngelo's step-uncles. The step-uncles lived in various cities, many in Orange County, including Mission Viejo and San Juan Capistrano. 

The youngest brother was employed by several school districts in administrative capacities, including Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.  I will call him U1 (for Uncle No. 1) and the other U2.  Both brothers were married at some point and both have children.  

U1's son is listed in the 1981 Irvine white pages at 151 Pineview in Irvine.  Grantor-Grantee records show that, in 1983, U1 and his wife co-owned this condo property with their son.  I believe at this time U1 lived in San Juan Capistrano.  I don't if they ever lived in this condo, but it is a possibility.

U2 has a grant deed dated 12/27/1984 for a property at 62 Christamon South in Irvine and a reconveyance dated 5/15/86.  This condo is a half-mile from U1's condo.  Both addresses are about a mile to a mile and a half from Manuela Witthuhn's house and Janelle Cruz's house.



Please note Zion Market in the center.  The stores have changed, but this is a shopping center where I believe DeAngelo might have seen either or both of the women.  There are several shops and some fast food.

Anyway, if he was close to his mother and step-father, he may have also been invited to his step-uncles homes as well.  Since Janelle Cruz was murdered during the 1986 El Toro Air Show, DeAngelo, a Navy man, may have visited and stayed with his relatives to see the show.  He may have seen Janelle at the show, at the market, they could have eaten at Bullwinkles . . . but he did possibly have a reason to be there.

Also, U1 lived in San Juan Capistrano, which is just around the corner from the Harrington murders.

*** I have added additional information in a post below.

I already posted this info elsewhere on here 2 days back. I turned it into LE, they are aware of this

[clapham]

Apr 28, 2018 11:47:55 GMT Cagney said:

And if you check my past posting's I always believed that Lakewood, Long Beach area was the answer to the Map! I think Wesley aka Murdoc was the only person that thought that maybe it could have been a possibility. Nobody took me serious and Im sure they won't now.. BUT, let me throw this out. BOUTON LAKE IN Lakewood,Ca. Which is probably a couple miles from the address where the monster lived,looks pretty darn close to the 'lake' on the map. Everyone said NAW! I am wondering if any of his children went to the schools in the area, maybe the papers found were their homework assignments?

His children hadn't been born yet when those papers were found.

[clapham]

Apr 26, 2018 22:51:07 GMT saturnrising said:

I won't put any names in this post, although the information on this family name is already out there.

I put some research into this, but there will still probably be mistakes and of course, it will probably be confusing, so bear with me.  It's tricky sorting out which names belong to parents and children, for instance.  Feel free to point out any mistakes you find.

DeAngelo's mother was divorced from his birth father and remarried a man who went by various first names, but I'll use the letter "J".  J was born in and lived a large part of his younger life in the Los Angeles area.  As shown in the 1940 census, he had two younger brothers - they were all three years apart. The brothers, then, would be DeAngelo's step-uncles. The step-uncles lived in various cities, many in Orange County, including Mission Viejo and San Juan Capistrano. 

The youngest brother was employed by several school districts in administrative capacities, including Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.  I will call him U1 (for Uncle No. 1) and the other U2.  Both brothers were married at some point and both have children.  

U1's son is listed in the 1981 Irvine white pages at 151 Pineview in Irvine.  Grantor-Grantee records show that, in 1983, U1 and his wife co-owned this condo property with their son.  I believe at this time U1 lived in San Juan Capistrano.  I don't if they ever lived in this condo, but it is a possibility.

U2 has a grant deed dated 12/27/1984 for a property at 62 Christamon South in Irvine and a reconveyance dated 5/15/86.  This condo is a half-mile from U1's condo.  Both addresses are about a mile to a mile and a half from Manuela Witthuhn's house and Janelle Cruz's house.



Please note Zion Market in the center.  The stores have changed, but this is a shopping center where I believe DeAngelo might have seen either or both of the women.  There are several shops and some fast food.

Anyway, if he was close to his mother and step-father, he may have also been invited to his step-uncles homes as well.  Since Janelle Cruz was murdered during the 1986 El Toro Air Show, DeAngelo, a Navy man, may have visited and stayed with his relatives to see the show.  He may have seen Janelle at the show, at the market, they could have eaten at Bullwinkles . . . but he did possibly have a reason to be there.

Also, U1 lived in San Juan Capistrano, which is just around the corner from the Harrington murders.

*** I have added additional information in a post below.

Excellent research. I believe U1 and son's condo could have great significance. However, the Witthuhn murder was in Feb. of 1981, so U2's grant deed in Dec. of 1984 seems irrelevant. Manuella worked in the loan department of a bank, so I wonder if she handled home mortgages. 

[clapham]

Apr 28, 2018 11:06:43 GMT SertumAEnigmA said:

This brings up another question now, did he know anyone who associated with Witthuhn and Cruz?

One thing that troubled me about the two cases, is how both girls were alone due to certain circumstances- that someone who knew them would know. If he visited or stayed in and around Irvine for substantial periods of time, did he know 'of them'?

We know he stayed at the Cruz house for a substantial period of time. If he surveilled the home like usual, the marine leaves and he attacks her, how did he know that the marine wouldn't return? Obviously it could be argued that he would be prepared for that, but would he have risked it?

When he attacked couples, he knew the house occupants were accounted for upon entry. It just seems very possible that he had some inside information on these two women.

I also wonder if he knew Italian. Especially when he broke into that home where the elderly father from Italy was visiting.

You have some misinformation about Janelle Cruz's visitor, who spent some time at her home and then left, the night she was murdered. The young man who visited was her friend from work. The Marine was a dark part of her past.......a friend's father who allegedly raped/molested Janelle.