Golden State Killer's ex-fiancée reveals terrifying encounter that foreshadowed his crime spree

Bonnie Ueltzen, the former fiancée of Joseph DeAngelo, the man convicted as the Golden State Killer, has broken her silence about a terrifying encounter that occurred shortly after she ended their engagement. In her first media interview, featured in the Fox Nation documentary "The Golden State Killer: Unmasking A Monster," Ueltzen described how DeAngelo appeared outside her family home with a gun on the night she broke up with him.

"I was absolutely in a panic," Ueltzen said. "I had no idea if he would pull the trigger." She expressed deep regret for not reporting the incident to the police at the time, particularly because it predated DeAngelo's extensive crime spree that terrorized California for decades. DeAngelo, now 80, was eventually linked to a series of rapes and murders. Some victims reported DeAngelo saying "I hate you, Bonnie" during assaults, leading investigators to search for a significant woman in his life named Bonnie.

Investigators identified Ueltzen, then Bonnie Jean Colwell, as the woman who was briefly engaged to DeAngelo. The relationship began when they were 18 and enrolled in an abnormal psychology class. Ueltzen, who was excelling academically, described a growing conflict with DeAngelo, who was failing the class and pressured her to help him cheat. This disagreement led to the end of their relationship and her returning his engagement ring.

Two weeks after the breakup, DeAngelo arrived at Ueltzen's parents' home with a revolver and demanded they get married that night. Ueltzen managed to alert her father, who then spoke with DeAngelo for nearly two hours. DeAngelo eventually left, and the authorities were never contacted. This was the last time Ueltzen saw him until his arrest in 2018.

Ueltzen recounted other disturbing incidents during their brief relationship, including witnessing DeAngelo kill a dog by kicking it, and noted his proficiency with firearms and his practice of poaching. DeAngelo married Sharon Huddle in 1973, with whom he had three children, though neighbors later described their marriage as volatile.

DeAngelo, a former police officer, evaded capture for decades, operating under various aliases. His eventual arrest in April 2018 was facilitated by a revolutionary DNA technique that linked his genetic profile to the crimes through a genealogy website. He pleaded guilty to 13 murders and 13 kidnappings, admitting to 161 uncharged crimes, in exchange for a sentence of 11 consecutive life terms without parole, plus eight years, which was handed down in August 2020.

Ueltzen stated that it is difficult to reconcile her past involvement with DeAngelo with the immense suffering he caused. "That he is the cause of so much damage to people, to other women, to the people that he murdered in the most brutal, brutal ways," she said in the documentary.