McNamara Michelle

Michelle McNamara (April 14, 1970 – April 21, 2016) was an American writer and crime blogger. She is the author of I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, a true crime book about the Golden State Killer. The book was released posthumously in February 2018.

McNamara attended Oak Park and River Forest High School in Oak Park, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1992 and earned a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Minnesota. She launched her website TrueCrimeDiary in 2006. She became interested in the Golden State Killer case and penned an article for Los Angeles magazine about the serial killer in 2013. McNamara was the first to coin the term "Golden State Killer", after authorities linked DNA evidence that connected the Original Night Stalker and East Bay Rapist. She then signed a book deal with HarperCollins and began to work on a book about the case. Her book was posthumously updated and finalized by true crime writer Paul Haynes and her widower Patton Oswalt. The book was released on February 27, 2018 (almost two years after her death), reaching the top of the New York Times Best Seller list for nonfiction. 

As of April 25, 2018, the book had been on the list for four weeks. In April 2018, HBO announced that they had purchased the rights for I'll Be Gone in the Dark and were developing it into a documentary series. Filming for the series began on April 24, 2018. On April 25, 2018, Californian authorities arrested Joseph James DeAngelo as the alleged Golden State Killer. Oswalt stated that authorities' use of the killer's name that McNamara coined was "proof of the impact of her work." Authorities have also linked DeAngelo to the Visalia Ransacker. McNamara married actor Patton Oswalt on September 24, 2005. The couple's daughter Alice was born in 2009. McNamara died in her sleep on April 21, 2016, as a result of taking Adderall, Xanax, and the pain medication Fentanyl combined with an undiagnosed heart condition that caused blockages to her arteries.