In the quiet seaside community of Goleta, California, the summer of 1981 was shattered by a brutal and terrifying crime. On the night of July 27, 27-year-old Gregory Sanchez and his companion, 35-year-old Cheri Domingo, were house-sitting at a residence on Toltec Way. Their night was horrifically interrupted when a masked intruder armed with a gun entered the home. A violent struggle ensued, during which Sanchez, a tall and athletic man, fought back against his attacker.
He was shot in the face during the confrontation, a wound that subdued him but was not immediately fatal. This gave the assailant time to bind and assault Domingo. Sanchez, however, regained consciousness and bravely continued to fight for their lives before both he and Domingo were ultimately bludgeoned to death. The viciousness of the attack left the community in fear and the police with a baffling double homicide.
For decades, the murders of Gregory Sanchez and Cheri Domingo remained a painful, unsolved mystery, a cold case that offered no answers or justice for their grieving families. Investigators were left with few leads, and the trail to identify the killer grew cold. The community whispered about the crime, with some speculating it might be connected to other violent attacks in the area. Years turned into decades, and the hope of finding the person responsible faded. However, a breakthrough came with the advancement of forensic science. In 2011, cold case investigators re-examined evidence from the crime scene and were able to extract a small, degraded DNA sample from semen left by the killer. This sample was compared to a national database and produced a shocking link: the killer was the same individual responsible for a string of rapes and murders across California, a man known by several terrifying nicknames, including the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker.
The DNA match revitalized the investigation, connecting the Goleta murders to a prolific and elusive serial killer. The suspect, however, remained a ghost until investigators used innovative genetic genealogy techniques. They uploaded the killer's DNA profile to a public genealogy website, which led them to a family tree and ultimately to one man: Joseph James DeAngelo, a 72-year-old former police officer living in a Sacramento suburb. DeAngelo was arrested in April 2018. In May 2018, he was formally charged with the murders of Gregory Sanchez and Cheri Domingo, among many other crimes. To avoid the death penalty, DeAngelo pleaded guilty in June 2020 to 13 counts of first-degree murder and numerous other charges. This plea brought a long-awaited conclusion to a case that had haunted families and investigators for nearly forty years. The case of Gregory Sanchez stands as a testament to both the enduring pain of unsolved homicides and the power of modern technology to finally bring a notorious killer to justice.
