Debra Alexandria Manning was 35 when she was murdered on December 30, 1979, in Goleta, Santa Barbara County, California. She was killed at her home alongside Dr. Robert Offerman in an attack later connected to the series of violent crimes attributed to the Golden State Killer, also called the Original Night Stalker.

Decades after the killings, the suspect Joseph James DeAngelo was identified through DNA evidence and genetic genealogy and was arrested in 2018. He was a former police officer and was charged in connection with numerous murders and sexual assaults across California dating from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. Legal proceedings followed, including guilty pleas to multiple counts of murder and other crimes.

Manning’s death is part of a larger pattern of linked homicides and assaults that helped establish the use of DNA and genealogy in solving cold cases. Did anyone who knew Debra or Dr.