One of the alleged surviving victims of the man authorities say is the Golden State Killer is speaking out about the nightmare he says still haunts him.
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“I can see him standing in my bedroom clear as day,” Victor Hayes told Inside Edition. “I will never forget it. I've seen that vision almost every day for 42 years.”
Dozens of men were forced to witness their loved ones savagely assaulted by the California serial killer and rapist dubbed the Golden State Killer. Prosecutors have claimed the suspected serial killer and rapist is Joseph James DeAngelo.
The 74-year-old former cop is charged with killing 13 people and is believed to have raped at least 50 women from 1974 to 1986 in California.
Hayes took Inside Edition back to the home where he said his life was shattered. He was 21 years old and living in a rented house with his girlfriend outside Sacramento, one of the communities terrorized by the Golden State Killer. He said that on the one night his girlfriend forgot to secure the window, he was awakened by an intruder pointing a flashlight and a pistol at his head.
The intruder gave his girlfriend a shoe lace to tie up Hayes. After she did as he commanded, the intruder inspected the knot and "then he told her to grab some plates,” Hayes said.
The intruder placed plates on Hayes’ back, so that if he moved, it would be heard.
“He told me not to make sounds,” Hayes said, adding the intruder told him: "If I have to come in here, I will blow your brains out.”
Hayes said the man took his girlfriend into the living room and put a towel over her head and then sexually assaulted her for 30 minutes.
“He came into my room, put the gun to my head, pulled the hammer back, told me he was going to kill me," Hayes said.
Then came a bizarre threat.
“I’m going to party with Sharon,” the man said. Sharon is Hayes’ mother's first name. "(I thought) 'he knows me,'" Hayes said.
Hayes and his girlfriend who was attacked by the man broke up. He never married or had a family.
Hayes said he is furious over the way the original police investigation was conducted, noting he remembered telling investigators in 1977 the intruder wore khaki pants, which he later realized were similar to a police officer's uniform.
An Auburn City Police log that Hayes claimed to have recently obtained shows that DeAngelo was on duty around the time he and his girlfriend were brutalized.
Hayes said he believes that after all these years, there is a “bombshell hiding” in the investigation, saying he is convinced someone in authority knew the identity of the Golden State Killer long before his arrest.
Inside Edition spoke with current Auburn Police Chief Ryan Cannan, who denied there was a cover-up and said that “there’s no police officer, no sheriffs that wants this type of person working with them.”
DeAngelo is locked up in a Sacramento jail. He looked shockingly thin at a recent court appearance, according to published reports, he's gone from 205 to 135 pounds, after refusing to eat.
The Sacramento Sheriff’s Department told Inside Edition that it cannot comment on specifics of an inmate's health, but said they would not allow someone to starve themselves. Inmates believed to be intentionally starving themselves would be treated in their medical facility, officials said.
DeAngelo has not yet entered a plea. He is expected in court next week.
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