A former police officer has been arrested in connection with a notorious series of rapes and murders in California by the "Golden State Killer".
Police say Joseph James DeAngelo, of Citrus Heights, California, has been charged with two counts of murder.
DeAngelo is a suspect, however, in more than 50 rapes and 12 murders carried out in northern, central and southern California between 1976 and 1986, they said.
At a news conference in Sacramento, officials said the case was finally solved by DNA evidence.
The FBI has previously said that the man sought in the 40-year-old case was suspected of 12 slayings, 45 rapes and more than 120 burglaries in and around Sacramento, the eastern San Francisco Bay area and at least two counties of Southern California.
DeAngelo, who was also dubbed by investigators as the "East Area Rapist" and the "Original Night Stalker," is considered to be one of the state's most prolific serial killers, according to the FBI.
Officials said he was living in the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights when he was arrested yesterday.
"Joseph James DeAngelo has been called a lot of things by law enforcement ... Today it is our pleasure to call him defendant," Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas told reporters.
"Finally, after all these years, the haunting question of who committed these terrible crimes has been put to rest."
Investigators said DeAngelo was a police officer in two different California departments during the 1970s - in the municipality of Exeter near the Sierra Nevada foothills of the San Joaquin Valley, and in the Gold Rush town of Auburn.
Efforts to find a suspect were renewed in June 2016, when the FBI offered a $50,000 reward.
The criminal was known for creeping into his victims' houses while couples slept, shining a flashlight in their eyes before raping the woman while the man was tied up.
Between 1976 and 1978, the criminal committed a wave of burglaries, rapes and killings in the Sacramento area, then centred his attacks in the East Bay before moving on to Ventura and Orange counties in Southern California, according to the FBI.
The killer was also believed to have taken valuables from victims' homes and possibly accumulated a trove of coins and jewellery.
This led FBI investigators to ask the public to be on the lookout for a friend, relative or acquaintance with a suspicious collection of hidden items.
