'Golden State Killer' suspect on the run for decades 'finally caught'

Also known as the 'East Area Rapist', suspect linked to a series of rapes and homicides in 1970s and 1980s

A combination image shows FBI sketches of the East Area Rapist (FBI/Handout via REUTERS)

A man suspected of being the "Golden State Killer" who terrorised California with a string of rapes and murders in 1970s and the 1980s, has been arrested.

Thought to have been responsible for dozens of rapes and multiple homicides, as well as a number of burglaries, he earned the additional nicknames of the "Original Night Stalker" and the "East Area Rapist", as his victims mounted and the geographical area in which they were targeted expanded.

Footage from the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights showed dozens of law enforcement officials, many of them with the FBI, outside a home surrounded by yellow tape.

One of the alleged rapist’s victims told the Island Packet newspaper that she was “overwhelmed with joy” after detectives contacted her this week to inform her of the arrest.

“I've been crying, sobbing”, Jane Carson-Sandler said.

Authorities had redoubled their efforts to catch the suspect in recent months, with the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office last year releasing a list of items believed to have been stolen by the killer in the hopes someone would recognise them.

“We are in the hunt for a serial killer here in California”, Sacramento district attorney Anne Marie Schubert said at the time.

The Australian reported that authorities in California and Australia had spoken to explore links between the East Area Rapist and and a man called “Mr Cruel”, who is suspected of committing a series of violent attacks in Australia in the 1980s.

An Australian police spokesman told the paper that “any connection has been ruled out”.