A California man identified by authorities as a serial killer was found guilty Thursday of raping and murdering two women in the 1980s after DNA evidence linked him to the crimes.
Horace Van Vaultz Jr., 67, was found guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstance accusations of numerous deaths, rape, and sodomy, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Former Bakersfield resident Vaultz has been incarcerated after his 2019 arrest. Next month, he might be condemned to life in jail without the prospect of release.
In 1986, Vaultz was convicted of murdering Mary Duggan, age 22. Her corpse was discovered in the trunk of her automobile at a Burbank, California parking lot. In addition, he was found guilty of the 1981 murder of 20-year-old Selena Keough, whose body was discovered outside an apartment complex in Montclair, San Bernardino County. They were both strangled.
The crimes remained unsolved for decades until they were linked to Vaultz using investigative genetic genealogy, in which genealogical websites are utilized to identify prospective relatives of a suspect based on DNA acquired from a crime scene.
The DA’s office stated that it was the first criminal case in LA County to employ the process.
The prosecution maintained at Vaultz’s trial that he was a serial murderer driven by sexual gratification. The defense maintained that he had consensual intercourse with the ladies and that someone else was responsible for their deaths. Vaultz identified himself as a “”swinger”” and claimed to have no recollection of meeting the victims.
KNBC-TV stated that a recent reexamination of material by prosecutors revealed a DNA link between Vaultz and a third homicide in Ventura County.
Janna Rowe, age 25, was strangled and abandoned in a garbage heap. Vaultz was acquitted of her murder in 1988, prior to the availability of DNA evidence at trial, and hence cannot be retried.