Anyone having probed deeply into the case of The Night Predator (AKA the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker) cannot help but wonder where such a villain must have been based. And indeed uncovering even the general area of his dwelling can be crucial to finally outing the miscreant.

     EAR’s lair conjures up old images of a Dragnet episode, where the malcontent villain festers in a dank room amidst dreary mementoes of his boring job and frustrated life. EAR certainly had a number of souvenirs from his victims, none of which ever turned up again. I doubt they were displayed. But they were probably kept in that gym bag that he was known to have carried. This was probably stashed in a closet.

     What we do know, from the most obvious deduction, is that he stayed close to a telephone; a scratch pad with many numbers was next to it. He dialed, quietly listened to the “hellos” on the other end, and then calmly put down the receiver.

     Day or night he went about thinking how to reconnoiter his next victims. He stalked many neighborhoods before striking. In between he returned to his lair, sat at his little desk or hutch, and dialed again. At night he snipped out the little overhead light when finished. Then he was off to prowl.

     This can tell us much of his profile, but it is best to leave that theorizing to the appropriate page.

     This page is concerned with his attacks. They are not theory. They are solid strikes. He had to get to them and return to his lair. He had to get to these communities and return. Many times. Many times he stalked. He came and went many times. His entire crime spree helps us to get into his stalking mind. Study the map below before we continue. The East Area of Sacramento. . .

     It is impossible not to leave a progressive chain of clues. It is a physical impossibility. It violates an immutable law of physics. The Law of Cause and Effect. Nothing just happens. Everything is connected. No matter how hard a villain tries to cover his steps, he cannot. Attempting to cover steps leaves clues. Disguise can last only so long until the clues are unraveled.

     Before we look at a marked up map below, let’s make a few points.

     We know where EAR began. It is not necessary here to speculate that he had some connection with the area of Rancho Cordova. What is necessary to highlight here is the fact that the area of Malaga/Paseo is quite close to Folsom Blvd. The first home he struck is 3 short blocks away.

     The significance of this we know. Folsom Blvd is a main artery in and out of Rancho Cordova. The location of a main thoroughfare near a strike point (or “Comfort Zone”) would be a repeating theme in EAR’s stalking modus operandi. The map above marks the major arteries of Sacramento’s east end. Watt Avenue is traced in blue. Folsom Blvd is the crimson line south of the American River. Greenback Lane is the crimson line in the far north. Sunrise Blvd is the bright red line in the east. This cube of the East Area is where EAR began and concentrated.

       When EAR moved on to the Contra Costa County area, he followed this pattern. He stayed close to Highway 680 and to main thoroughfares. It invariably indicated he was not familiar with the area.

     When the EAR moved south to So. Cal, he did the same thing.

     The East Area map above can be interpreted by EAR’s unflinching pattern abroad. EAR confined himself to areas around main thoroughfares because he could come and go quickly and unobserved in the more trafficked area. Therefore he did not live around them. He could be too easily traced if he did. One mistake. One cop on patrol that he didn’t suspect. He could be traced back to his lair.

       In all the East Area there is a glaring exception to his MO. He struck deep only a few times, and these times were all around the same area on the map, an area which noticeably remains blank. The first time was in Del Dayo. This is the furthest from a main thoroughfare that he struck, and he struck here early on with Attack No. 2 and then 7, and then later returns for No. 21. Then there is that oddball attack No. 26.

       From looking at the map you might think I have made a mistake. The un-traced “T” in the center of the cube marks Madison Avenue (the cross east/west) and the stem is Manzanita (running north/south). At the base of this “T” Manzanita merges into Fair Oaks Blvd which goes west and eventually connects with Watt Avenue. These are main thoroughfares, yes, but they are markedly different than the others. They are not arteries that allow one to come and go to the East Area quickly. They are only arteries that service the crisscrossing veins of the East Area. It’s a long way up Manzanita to Madison and from there (left) to Highway 80. It is also a long way along Fair Oaks Blvd to Watt and then left (south) to Highway 50.

     Nevertheless, EAR strikes within this area. He made his escape somewhere, and it is unlikely that it was to a highway.

   Exceptions indeed. But they all lead to Manzanita/Fair Oaks boulevards. Neither of which are a quick artery out of the East Area. Arden Way, a significant commercial avenue further west in Sacramento, dead ends at McClaren and is the entrance to William B. Pond Recreation Area. Fair Oaks snakes along, goes north and then right to the area of Schweitzer Grove. EAR was seen fleeing along Whitney Ave. to Manzanita/Fair Oaks. Watt Avenue goes north into the area from La Riviera.

     Taking all this in we may understand why EAR only struck once in such a prime area as Schweitzer Grove (10), which is itself a mirror of his oft-used hub of Del Campo Park. Perhaps it was too close to his sensitive lair. He also knew Del Dayo well enough so that with his first strike there (No. 2) he did not rely on the levee and park area, which he would with No. 7 and No. 21. We know he did not know La Riviera well, for he relied on the CATs and then the levee walk.

       All of these strikes above are in proximity to Manzanita/Fair Oaks Blvds, two thoroughfares that do not lead in or out of the area quickly. They are the exception to the other strikes, which were all in an area where the mains roads quickly led to a highway (except 16, 19).

     No. 26 has always bothered me. EAR is apparently without a car. But this still does not explain why he stashes a bike (one he apparently didn’t steal) in the back of a dump truck parked at a conspicuous place at the corner of Mission and Whitney. Why not just stash the bike by the house and ride away? He had done so at other places. Here, as we know, the offending organ is described as much thicker and larger than the other times. Only a few victims described this— 11, 17, for examples. A pumping device is a possibility, since on a few of these occasions the victims heard a popping sound as if a pump was being operated beforehand. They also heard the zipper of a gym bag. EAR had no ability to conceal a bag or pump at No. 26, for a witness saw him retrieve the bike out of the back of the dump truck and ride off toward Manzanita, mask and all.  Had he pumped himself up at his lair nearby and then struck at the Woodson Way area before the effects diminished? It would indicate his lair was nearby.

       At the next attack, No. 27 in La Riviera, EAR also uses a bike. But it doesn’t seem to be one stolen from the neighborhood. I doubt he rode up Watt Avenue, so he may have had a car present somewhere, and rode to that. Possibly a van. In Danville (No. 46) a suspicious van was seen, and the bloodhound traced the scent to Delta Place, the area to which it seems EAR had been seen to bike earlier. It would be easy to get a bike into the back of a van. It is interesting to note that No. 28, the next attack after La Riviera (No. 27) and Woodson Way (No. 26), the victim would insist that the attacker had parked a van next to her house.

     Had EAR parked his van in the area of No. 26 and taken the bike out and rode to the attack? If so why hide the bike in such a precarious place? Also, if he did drive here, how to explain why No. 26 still so stands out in location? And it is not alone. Del Dayo, Schweitzer Grove, and Whitney Way, all bear one thing in common. They are connected via Fair Oaks/Manzanita boulevards. They are all the exceptions to the rule. These thoroughfares lead nowhere out of Carmichael and the East Area. But they are at the heart of the areas servicing the many communities and roads of the East Area.

       I suggest to you that the EAR’s lair was here. This explains why he struck very little in the area. This explains why when he did he doesn’t seem to need any quick escape thoroughfare, for he is merely returning to his den locally.        

    Manzanita proves an interesting axis. At the top, near Madison and a quick route to Highway 80, EAR strikes No. 4, his first strike so far afield from 1,2,3. Yet No. 2 (not pictured) is at the southern axis of Manzanita/Fair Oaks boulevards. Thus EAR’s first strikes outside of Rancho Cordova are on opposite ends of the same axis— Manzanita. Crestview allows a quick escape down Madison to Highway 80, which then offers a very quick back entrance into the East Area again at the next Highway 80 cutoff south— Watt Avenue. Much safer than driving down Manzanita to his lair, if it is in the Manzanita/Fair Oaks boulevard areas.

     There are many ways back into the East Area from Crestview without conspicuously heading there down Manzanita Avenue. Madison goes to Auburn Blvd or to the I-80. Then south EAR could take the 244 back to Auburn Blvd or take Watt Avenue and head back to Whitney.

     For No. 2 this would not be possible. It would, however, be relatively easy to go up Fair Oaks/Manzanita boulevards from Del Dayo and fade into the many cross streets. Or he could take Arden Way to Watt and come back in the opposite direction of the above route to Watt from I-80.

   None of this precludes the theory that EAR grew up or lived in Rancho Cordova. He seems to have had more than a passing acquaintance with the area of the attacks. He remained confined to a specific area of western Rancho. He doesn’t use any tactical ally here until No 6. He seems to know the streets and cross streets. After No. 8, he steals the victim’s car and parks it down El Segundo Drive. His actions at No. 1 and 3 argue that he had some lair in the area. He arrives at No. 3 naked from the waist down, and leaves in the same improbable manner, this time with an eyewitness who watches him saunter down the street. I do not have the direction which way down Las Casas Way, but either way fits with EAR knowing the area.

     For one, EAR appeared in the bedroom doorway of Victim 1 naked from the waist down. We have no idea if he arrived that way, but if he did it would suggest he jumped the fences from Del Rey Court. If he walked in that direction on Las Casas Way from the area of Paseo/Las Casas Way where he struck No. 3, it would mean he was going back to the Del Rey Court area.

     There are reasons to wonder that he arrived at No. 1 naked from the waist down. In his early attacks he wore hiking boots. It is not easy to get pants off over these. I do not know how long he was in the house of Victim 1 (after he raped her) before she got up and to the back door, but he may not have had time to put his pants back on. If so, he arrived without them.

     If EAR sauntered down Las Casas toward La Presa, this would fit with leaving the car of Victim 8 on El Segundo. But this would also mean that he would have to walk in front of the house to which the family had fled (though he would be on the other side of the street). He could not have left his pants in the backyard of the victims’ neighbors, for that was the house to which they had fled. The next adjoining backyard would be on Palo Vista, and by the time he could have walked there the police would have been present.

     In any case, his pants were never found. He found where he stashed them or he was using a friend/relative’s house or an empty house or home where people were away on vacation.

     The curious layout of the beginning in Rancho Cordova below:

    Which way did he go, and what on Earth was he up to?

     Altogether The EAR had some kind of haven in this area of Rancho Cordova and no doubt lived in the Carmichael area west of Fair Oaks/Manzanita boulevards. He may have grown up in one location and now on his own was renting an apartment in the other.

   Renting an apartment is a bit problematic. All that coming and going he must have engaged in late night should have alerted some other tenant, but perhaps it did not.

     One correspondent with me suggested that EAR was using pay phones in order to make his hang up calls. This would explain why he stole so much change. Could be. But I have no reports that all those who experienced hang up calls ever heard traffic on the other end, which one would suspect if he was at a pay phone.

       All in all, I would say EAR’s longest and most used abode was north of Arden Way and south of Whitney Avenue and West of Manzanita. Only here does he not need to flee off to a main thoroughfare that leads to a highway. It is also easy to get to these location again from the others without going down Manzanita. He could use one or more highways and then Watt Avenue.