'Original Night Stalker' DNA links killings

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SANTA BARBARA, Calif., May 5 (UPI) -- The 1981 slaying of a Goleta, Calif., couple has been linked to the DNA of an unidentified suspect in a slew of killings across the state, police said Thursday.

The DNA evidence corroborates a long-established theory that the killings of Cheri Domingo, 35, and Gregory Sanchez, 27, were the work of a serial killer and rapist active in Sacramento, Ventura and Orange counties in the mid-1980s, Santa Barbara County authorities told the Los Angeles Times.

"With recent advancements in DNA profiling methods, it was important for us to push forward and re-evaluate evidence in this case before it deteriorated and became useless," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told the newspaper.

Police believe another Goleta couple -- Dr. Robert Offerman, 44, and Alexandra Manning, 35 -- were killed 18 months later by the same man, whom they call the "Original Night Stalker."

Police do not know the man's identity, his whereabouts or even if he is still alive.