Autopsy details

Deputy Coroner’s Investigation

• The phone cord had been cut on the lower level where the intruder entered through the window

• Victim and wife went to bed at 11:30 pm after arriving home from a movie.

• She was awakened by a noise. At first she thought she saw her husband, but then realized he [Darby] was in bed next to her

  • Darby was little over 5’ 9”; DeAngelo was 5’10”

  • Both born in 1945, same age

• She saw the person holding a flashlight and screamed “JOHN, JOHN”

• She remembered putting her face in her pillow and smelling something like firecracker smoke

• Intruder left through the front door

• She tried to make calls and found the phone dead

• Took daughter to relatives nearby

• “Probable” rifle (Huddle said DeAngelo was carrying around a 357 magnum in his trunk around this time); point being rifle not definitive in coroner deputy investigation and rifle assumed being the reason no ties were made. 

• Occurred in Arden Oaks