Investigators spent all of Wednesday collecting evidence at the home where Joseph James DeAngelo lived.
According to officials, the 72-year-old was arrested overnight on the 8300 block of Canyon Oak Drive in Citrus Heights.
DeAngelo’s next door neighbor described him as a "nice guy."
"He just retired," said Cory Harvey.
"The last couple months, he’d been using his vacation because he had so much vacation accrued. He’d go fishing, and he couldn’t wait for retirement,” Harvey explained.
Harvey said she didn’t know where he retired from.
According to Harvey, DeAngelo lived with his daughter and granddaughter. She told ABC10 she heard a lot of commotion next door at around 4 p.m. Tuesday. Harvey said detectives spent all night investigating DeAngelo’s home, but she did not see when he was arrested.
Cindy Stowers lives around the corner where the suspected East Area Rapist was arrested. She described what she remembered hearing about in the 1970s.
“That he would pick houses that didn't have animals, that he would tie up the husband, put a cup or a plate on them and tell them not to move, and if you move, 'I will kill your wife,'” Stowers said.
Stowers said those stories traumatized her as a little girl.
“I was terrified he was going to take my parents," she said.
She was one of dozens of neighbors who gathered around the scene Wednesday after hearing the news that the accused Golden State Killer had been arrested.
"I think most people who grew up in Sacramento assumed that he died or wondered: Would he ever be caught?” Stowers added.
The mother of three has lived in the same neighborhood as DeAngelo for 20 years, and says she never felt unsafe.
“To know that he was there is just a little on the unnerving side,” added Stowers.
Stowers told ABC10 she’s relieved a journey to justice has finally began.
"I feel so bad for the families that he affected for so long, and his poor daughter and grandchild, that's horrible," Stowers said.
Follow the conversation with Daniela Pardo on Facebook.