I’ll Be Gone In the Dark: Patton Oswalt on reliving wife’s death while working on documentary about Golden State killer

Michelle McNamara penned celebrated true-crime book adapted in new HBO documentary

When Patton Oswalt set out to work on I’ll Be Gone In the Dark, a new HBO documentary based on his late wife Michelle McNamara’s celebrated true-crime book, he knew he would have to revisit her death.

McNamara, who devoted years to researching the Golden State Killer case, died in April 2016 of an accidental overdose and undiagnosed heart condition.

After her death, Oswalt helped finish her book about the case, I’ll Be Gone In the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer.

HBO’s adaptation of the book, which documents both the Golden State Killer case and McNamara’s work, features Oswalt.

During an interview with NPR, Oswalt was asked about having to revisit both McNamara’s life and death once the documentary was underway.

“Yes, that was one of the that was one of the tasks that was before me, unfortunately, but yeah, I knew that I would have to do that,” he said.

Asked how he coped, Oswalt added: “I don’t remember. Sloppily and badly.

“You’re more like, I want to embrace life now rather than going over and over again. How, I mean, how I got through it was I woke up every morning and I went to bed every night and tried to, you know, just walk my way out of it.

“But you realise very quickly that you’re not walking out of it. You’re being put through it. So it’s kind of out of your control.”

The Golden State Killer struck in California during the Seventies and Eighties.

A man suspected of being the elusive killer, former police officer Joseph DeAngelo, was arrested in April 2018.

He is expected to plead guilty on 29 June as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty, The Associated Press reported earlier this month.