Jane Carson-Sandler

March 2025 Issue

by Michele Roldán-Shaw
Photography by Cassidy Dunn Photography

Early on the morning of October 5, 1976, shortly after her husband left for work, a ski-masked man brandishing a butcher knife broke into Jane Carson-Sandler’s home. Threatening her between clenched teeth, he bound, gagged, and blindfolded both her and her 3-year-old son. After taking the boy away, he viciously raped Jane, but all she could think the whole time was Where is my son? What are you going to do to my son?

Her attacker was the notorious Golden State Killer, one of the worst serial rapists and murderers in American history. Between 1974 and 1986 he went on a series of sadistic sprees, leaving entire counties gripped in fear. He raped more than 50 women, killed at least 13 people and burglarized over a hundred homes around Central and Southern California. It wasn’t until 2018 that he was finally caught, ending a 42-year reign of terror over the hearts and minds of so many women and families. A particularly bizarre and disturbing aspect to the case is that his ability to evade authorities for so long was due at least in part to the tactical skill he had as a former police officer and Navy man. But a handful of dedicated individuals never stopped working to crack the cold case. Joseph James DeAngelo was finally apprehended at age 73 thanks to breakthroughs in genealogy and the use of DNA databases for criminal applications. He was living with his daughter and granddaughter in the same Sacramento area neighborhood where the crimes began.

As horrifying as Jane’s ordeal was, she considers herself fortunate to be one of his earliest victims. She and her son survived, but as DeAngelo’s career progressed he began carrying out his hallmark threat of “Shut up or I’ll kill everything in the house.” He also continued harassing his victims for years afterwards, peeping, stalking and prank calling them. Jane lived under the constant fear that he was still watching and planning his next attack. But the victim label was one she would ultimately have to shed, in her own words going from “victim to survivor to thriver through the grace and love of God.”

Before she became any of those things, Jane was a mother, a wife, a New Jersey native and a servicewoman in the U.S. Air Force Nurse Corps from which she would eventually retire as Colonel after an outstanding 30-year career. She was no stranger to trauma, treating gunshots, stab wounds, infections, missing limbs, people blinded or maimed, POWs and soldiers returning from the front lines. Jane had seen it all, every sort of mental, physical, and psychological damage that humans can live through. But nothing could have prepared her for the trial of being brutally violated herself.

“After the attack I was so shamed,” Jane said, recalling that in the 1970s rape was a completely taboo subject. “I didn’t want to tell anyone. But if you keep it inside it’s just going to fester and make you physically and emotionally ill.”

“We are only as sick as our secrets,” said Jane, who sees definite improvement in societal awareness and response toward rape. “Today women are coming forward—but not enough! It’s really important to report your crime to the police, but also to share with someone who cares, who validates you, who actually hears you and doesn’t just brush you off. And when you tell your story, that inspires someone else to tell theirs. You have to turn your mess into a message and your pain into power.”

Yet when she attended DeAngelo’s first court appearance in 2018, she found that trauma lingered deep inside. They were about to bring him into the courtroom in a cage when Jane, who had never broken down in any of her numerous public speaking engagements, suddenly began sobbing uncontrollably. All the pain, all the rage, all the thirst for revenge that she had worked so hard to put behind her came flooding back. The man she thought she had forgiven was once again the monster who’s face she wanted to rip apart. Sitting next to Jane was a friend and sister-survivor whose mother had been raped and murdered by the Golden State Killer. She wrapped her arm around Jane and said, “I’m putting the armor of God around you. This is your moment, and I want you to be in it.” Instantly the tears stopped, Jane regained composure and was able to look her attacker in the face after 42 years of fear.

Now, at age 79, DeAngelo is serving 26 consecutive life sentences in a California prison.

“Our wounds heal but the scars remain,” said Jane. “Everyone has traumas, and something like this is going to be there the rest of my life. But thanks to my Lord, I’ve been given the strength to get through it. I’m not sorry this happened to me because it’s given me the chance to help others. This has become my mission.”

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Hear Jane's Story in Person:

You can hear Jane Carson-Sandler speak at “An Evening with Hopeful Horizons” on March 28 at Hampton Hall Clubhouse in Bluffton. Jane has volunteered with Hopeful Horizons, a local children’s advocacy, domestic violence and rape crisis center throughout the Lowcountry. She is trained in crisis counseling and has been present at the bedside of women post-assault, giving them the care and understanding she so desperately needed after her own attack. She has written two books that not only tell her story but also give wonderful guidance to survivors. She has formed close bonds with her “sister-survivors” of the Golden State Killer and given numerous talks to spread her message of hope and empowerment.

Purchase tickets to An Evening with
Hopeful Horizons at hopefulhorizons.org/gala2025.

Jane Carson-Sandler is available to speak about her experience in any appropriate forum. Her email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..