A SUSPECTED Californian serial killer who committed at least 12 homicides and 45 rapes throughout the state in the 1970s and 1980s has been identified overnight as a former police officer.

Joseph James DeAngelo, 72. who was fired from the Auburn Police Department, has been revealed as the suspected ‘Golden State killer’, one of the most feared predators in America’s history who is linked to a dozen unsolved murders, rapes and 120 home burglaries spanning a decade.

Officials said they made the arrest after a DNA match tied DeAngelo to some of the crimes attributed to the Golden State killer who terrorised LA three decades ago.

“We knew we were looking for a needle in a haystack, but we also knew that needle was there,” Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said. “The answer was always going to be in the DNA.”

Armed with a gun, the masked attacker terrorised communities by breaking into homes while single women or couples were sleeping. He sometimes tied up the man and piled dishes on his back, then raped the woman while threatening to kill them both if the dishes tumbled.

He often took souvenirs, notably coins and jewellery, from his victims, who ranged in age from 13 to 41.

The man was known as the Golden State Killer, the Original Night Stalker and the Diamond Knot Killer.

DeAngelo was fired from the Auburn Police Department in 1979 after he was arrested for stealing a can of dog repellent and a hammer from a supermarket, according to Auburn Journal articles from the time.

The FBI says it has a team gathering evidence at a home in California’s Sacramento area linked to DeAngelo.

Sacramento County jail records show DeAngelo was arrested overnight on suspicion of two counts of murder cited in a Ventura County warrant.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the man was identified after the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert pushed for the case to be re-examined.

“It is the most prolific unsolved serial killing case probably in modern history,” District Attorney Schubert told Fox 40.

DeAngelo is reportedly being held at the Sacramento County Main jail and is not ineligible for bail, the Sacramento Bee reports.

The arrest comes months after the publication of a true crime book on the case, I’ll Be Gone In The Dark, by the late journalist and writer Michelle McNamara, who died in April 2016.

McNamara spent much of her career researching and writing about the Californian rapist and killer, but died before the book was published.

(McNamara was married to comedian Patton Oswalt who worked to finish the book after her death.)

Oswalt was among the first people tweeting about the possible arrest.

“If they’ve really caught the #GoldenStateKiller I hope I get to visit him,” Oswalt tweeted. “Not to gloat or gawk — to ask him the questions that (McNamara) wanted answered in her ‘Letter To An Old Man’ at the end of #IllBeGoneInTheDark.”

The book’s co-author Billy Jensen has also posted numerous tweets about the possible arrest of the serial killer.

“If you’ve been following the Golden State Killer case, stay tuned. We will be having a rather large announcement,” he wrote, adding: “Two hours of sleep but an airport chocolate banana smoothie is going to get me through what I hope will be an amazing day. #IllBeGoneInTheDark #GoldenStateKiller #intothelight.”

Californian Jane Carson-Sandler was sexually assaulted at knifepoint by a man believed to be the Golden State Killer. Carson-Sandler, who now lives in South Carolina, told The Island Packet newspaper overnight that she had been contacted by two detectives about the arrest.

“I just found out this morning,” she said. “I’m overwhelmed with joy. I’ve been crying, sobbing.”

“I feel like I’m in the middle of a dream and I’m going to wake up and it’s not going to be true. It’s just so nice to have closure and to know he’s in jail.”

Carson-Sandler was attacked in her home in Citrus Heights, Sacramento. A home in that community belonging to a former police officer was being searched on Wednesday by FBI investigators and police from several agencies.

Two neighbours who declined to give their names said authorities arrived at the scene before midnight. Sacramento County Jail records show the man who lives at the home was booked into the facility at 2.30am on suspicion of murder. Sacramento County district attorney’s spokeswoman Shelly Orio declined to comment before the press conference.

FBI and California officials in 2016 renewed their search for the attacker and announced a $US50,000 ($A65,000) reward for his arrest and conviction. He’s linked to more than 175 crimes in all between 1976 and 1986. As he committed crimes across the state, authorities called him by different names. He was dubbed the East Area Rapist after his start in Northern California, the Original Night Stalker after a series of Southern California slayings, and the Diamond Knot Killer for using an elaborate binding method on two of his victims.

Most recently called the Golden State Killer, he has been linked through DNA and other evidence to scores of crimes.

Police decided to publicise the case again in 2016 in advance of the 40th anniversary of his first known assault in Sacramento County. Neighbour Kevin Tapia, 36, said when he was a teenager, DeAngelo falsely accused him of throwing things over their shared fence, prompting a heated exchange between DeAngelo and Mr Tapia’s father. He said DeAngelo could often be heard cursing in frustration in his backyard.

“No one thinks they live next door to a serial killer,” Mr Tapia said. “But at the same time I’m just like, he was a weird guy. He kept to himself. When you start to think about it you’re like, I could see him doing something like that but I would never suspect it.”