SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on developments in a California serial killer case (all times local):

12:45 p.m.

California authorities say a man they suspect of being a serial killer tied to dozens of slayings and sexual assaults in the 1970s and '80s has been charged with murder.

Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten told reporters Wednesday that his office charged Joseph James DeAngelo with two counts of first-degree murder in the 1980 killings of a couple.

Totten says prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the former police officer.

Authorities in Sacramento County also have arrested DeAngelo on suspicion of murder in the slayings of married couple Brian and Katie Maggiore in 1978.

Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert says DNA helped solve the case.

The attacker who became known as the "East Area Rapist" is accused of at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across the state.

___

12:35 p.m.

California authorities say DNA in two 1978 killings in Sacramento led to the arrest of a man suspected of being a serial killer tied to dozens of slayings and sexual assaults in the 1970s and '80s.

Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert told reporters Wednesday that the DNA helped solve the case in the last six days.

She said the "answer was always going to be in the DNA" and the connection came in the slayings of Brian and Katie Maggiore.

Authorities say a serial killer committed at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across the state. The attacker became known as the "East Area Rapist."

___

12:25 p.m.

California authorities say the arrest of a suspected California serial killer who's accused of dozens of slayings and sexual assaults in the 1970s and '80s comes after tireless work.

Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert told reporters Wednesday that dozens of people committed their professional lives to the search and spent hundreds of hours seeking "justice for these victims and their families."

Authorities say a serial killer committed at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across the state. The attacker became known as the "East Area Rapist."

___

11:30 a.m.

A law enforcement official has identified a suspected California serial killer as 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer.

The official confirmed the identity on condition of anonymity before an official news conference planned for noon Wednesday.

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

The FBI says it has a team gathering evidence at a Sacramento-area home linked to DeAngelo.

Authorities say a serial killer committed at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across the state in the 1970s and 1980s.

The attacker became known as the "East Area Rapist."

__

This story has been corrected to say DeAngelo's age is 72, not 77.

__

11 a.m.

A victim of a notorious Northern California serial killer and rapist says she's overjoyed after learning that police believe they've arrested the man responsible.

Jane Carson-Sandler says she received an email Wednesday from a retired detective who worked on the case telling her they identified the man and have him in custody.

She says she's ecstatic to have closure and to know her attacker is in jail.

Carson-Sandler, who now lives near Hilton Head, South Carolina, was one of dozens of women raped by an elusive serial killer police say killed at least 12 people.

She was attacked in her Citrus Heights, California, home in 1976. She and her three-year-old son were snuggled in bed together one morning after her husband left for work when the man broke into her house.

She says she hopes she'll have the opportunity to face her attacker in person. She says she has a lot of questions for him.

__

9 a.m.

The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office plans to make a 'major announcement" in the case of an elusive serial killer they say committed at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across California in the 1970s and 1980s.

District Attorney's spokeswoman Shelly Orio says a news conference will be held Wednesday afternoon in Sacramento to make "a major announcement."

FBI and California officials in 2016 renewed their search for the suspect dubbed the East Area Rapist and announced a $50,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. He's linked to more than 175 crimes in all between 1976 and 1986.

A woman who was sexually assaulted by a man believed to be the East Area Rapist in 1976 and now lives in South Carolina tells The Island Packet newspaper Wednesday that she has been contacted by two detectives about an arrest.

__

This story has been corrected to say DeAngelo's age is 72, not 77.