Hunting the Bogeyman | 1. The Nightmare

Summary

The Binge Crimes: Hunting the Bogeyman

Episode 1: The Nightmare

Release Date: November 3, 2025
Host: Peter McDonell (Sony Music Entertainment)
Main Guests: Nicole Earnest-Payte, Keith Hill (Sacramento prosecutor)

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Episode Overview

The premiere episode of “Hunting the Bogeyman,” titled “The Nightmare,” delves into the harrowing story of Nicole Earnest-Payte, who, at 21, was brutally attacked in her home in 1991 in Rohnert Park, California. Nicole recounts the life-changing assault and how she came to suspect that a serial predator was operating in Northern California—a suspicion initially dismissed by police. The episode intertwines Nicole’s resilience, her personal investigation, and introduces the crucial role of Detective Paul Holes, whose groundbreaking work years later would lead to a breakthrough in the case.

With raw, emotional storytelling and meticulous detail, episode one sets the stage for a true crime saga spanning almost three decades, exploring trauma, the search for justice, and the extraordinary advancements in forensic science that would eventually shine a light on the real-life “boogeyman.”

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Nicole’s Attack and Immediate Aftermath

• Setting the Scene: Nicole, independent and recently single at 21, is attacked in her own home after falling asleep on her couch. Important details: sliding glass door faced the parking lot, the motion sensor light, and the house’s unique layout.
  • Nicole receives an odd call from a potential roommate, “Bob Smith,” whose flat, monotone voice is unsettling ([05:43]-[06:16]).
  • She recalls the night of the attack, describing her casual relaxation and the vulnerability she felt (“I put on this little green robe…” [06:58]-[07:12]).
• The Assault:
  • Nicole wakes up to a masked man with a gun. He reassures her, “Don’t move. I’m just here to rob you.” ([08:07])
  • He knows intimate details about her: where she works, what car she drives, and recent visitors ([13:40])—suggesting he’s been stalking her.
  • The attack is methodical and sadistic, lasting hours. The man manipulates her psychologically and physically, heightening Nicole’s fear and lasting trauma.
  • “I thought about this crime every day of my life and still do, and I always will.” – Nicole ([09:18])

2. Nicole’s Response and Self-Possession

• Remarkable Composure:
  • Nicole tries to gather evidence: feeling the man’s hair, skin, and ears to get identifying details ([19:18]-[20:48]).
  • “Now that I got his face, I’m gonna feel it… high cheekbones, maybe Eastern European, definitely Caucasian. Likely blonde hair.” – Nicole ([19:18])
• Doubts and Fear:
  • The attacker’s knowledge and demeanor lead Nicole to suspect he might be a police officer (“He’s talking…like a police officer the whole night…I thought he could be a police officer.” [21:11]).
  • After the attack, the man gives her a butter knife, instructing her to wait until three songs have played before freeing herself. He threatens, “I will hear the scanner if you call the police, and I will come back and shoot you before they get here…” ([22:13])
  • Nicole, despite her fear, preserves evidence per her mother’s advice (a former rape crisis volunteer), and calls her mom instead of the police ([24:01]).

3. Interactions with Police and Early Investigation

• Law Enforcement Skepticism:
  • Nicole is met with disbelief at the police station:

    “She said, ‘This sounds like some sort of, you know, movie plot. Like you made this up from a movie plot.’ I was in shock.” – Nicole ([28:36])

  • Her detailed memory, unusual among trauma survivors, is turned against her.
• Systemic Failure & Fallout:
  • Police suspicion and lack of action leave Nicole feeling doubly violated—not just by her attacker, but by the criminal justice system.
  • Nicole’s ordeal was only the first in a series of attacks that would later be connected through investigative breakthroughs.

4. Introduction of Paul Holes & Forensic Innovation

• The “NorCal Rapist” Pattern:
  • In 1996, Paul Holes, then a young criminalist, begins to see potential links between similar attacks in the region ([29:19]).
  • The episode foreshadows Holes’ use of new DNA technology—an innovation that would revolutionize cold case investigations worldwide.
  • “This DNA technology is going to be pretty significant for these types of cases.” ([31:36])
• Nicole’s Hope & the Hunt for the Bogeyman:
  • Nicole’s quest for closure and understanding continues for decades:

    “Every day I fantasize about him getting caught. Could he figure out where I live? Is he somebody I know? Is he in my own community?” ([03:24])
    “He is kind of the boogeyman in the night that you are truly afraid of.” – Nicole ([31:28])

  • Nicole wants to not only see her attacker caught, but to understand why he became a “monster”:

    “I wanted to understand what happened to him and what made him be this monster. I wanted to meet him face to face.” – Nicole ([03:49])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Living After Trauma:

  “Never told people, never discussed it, never told my husband. I would fantasize about how good it would feel to not have to wonder who he was for the rest of my life and be scared for the rest of my life.” – Nicole ([09:31])

• On Her Mother’s Strength:

  “She was the most fierce person I’ve ever met.” – Nicole on her mother ([11:46])

• On Law Enforcement’s Dismissal:

  “This sounds like some sort of, you know, movie plot. Like you made this up from a movie plot.” – Female investigator ([28:36])

• On the Uniqueness of the Case:

  “This boogeyman is truly the manifestation of a nightmare…in this story, no one could find him for almost 30 years.” – Keith Hill ([01:55])

• On the Ongoing Nightmare:

  “The why, the what? The why me? All of those things that I think most victims think about that will probably, you know, eat at me a bit until I get those answers.” – Nicole ([31:57])

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Timeline & Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | Details | |------------|-------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:32 | Content Warning & Series Introduction | Host Peter introduces the theme, Keith Hill contextualizes “the bogeyman.” | | 03:24-03:49| Nicole’s Fear and Fantasies of Justice | Nicole describes living with anxiety about her attacker. | | 04:38-06:16| Nicole’s Early Life, Independence, and Roommate | Nicole recounts her life leading up to the attack, including the “Bob Smith” call. | | 08:07 | The Attack Begins | Nicole is woken up by the attacker. | | 09:18 | Nicole’s Enduring Trauma | Nicole reflects on how the attack shaped her life. | | 10:02-11:06| Studio Interview & Nicole’s Childhood | Nicole meets the host in the studio and shares stories about her upbringing. | | 12:37 | Realization: Attacker Was Likely in the House | Nicole speculates about the attacker hiding in her home in advance. | | 13:40 | Attacker Knows Personal Information | Nicole realizes how detailed his observations were. | | 19:18-20:48| Nicole Collects Evidence | She uses her skills as a hairstylist to get physical details about the attacker. | | 21:11 | Theories About the Attacker | Nicole suspects he’s possibly a police officer due to his tone and professionalism. | | 22:13 | Attacker Departs, Issues Final Threats | He tells her to wait before freeing herself and not to call the police. | | 24:01 | Nicole Calls Her Mother | Her mother’s training as a rape crisis volunteer kicks in. | | 28:36 | Police Skepticism | Investigators express disbelief at Nicole’s testimony. | | 29:19-29:55| Introduction of Paul Holes | Cold case detective Holes begins looking for patterns. | | 31:28 | Summary and Series Teaser | Reflects on the scope and stakes of the investigation. |

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Tone & Language

The hosts and guests speak with candor, empathy, and unvarnished realism. Nicole’s narration is vulnerable yet resolute, often blending dark humor and dry wit with raw depictions of fear and determination. The tone is tense, at times shocking, but maintains a thread of hope and the pursuit of justice throughout.

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Conclusion

“Hunting the Bogeyman: Episode 1” is a gripping and emotionally charged opening to a true crime series that centers survivors' voices and highlights the profound gaps between victim experience and institutional response. Through Nicole’s vivid recollections and the series’ sharp editorial direction, listeners are set up for an exploration not only of a singular criminal mind, but of systemic failures, forensic innovation, and enduring human resilience.

The episode closes by promising to dive deeper into the investigation, the evolving forensic technologies, and the relentless pursuit of closure for Nicole and countless others whose lives were shaped by the real-life “boogeyman” of Northern California.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

You can listen to all episodes of Hunting the Boogeyman ad free right now by subscribing to the binge, Visit the binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page or visit getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen the binge feed your true crime obsession.

[C]

The binge.

[B]

Hi, listeners, this is Peter. I just want to let you know that this series includes stories about sexual assault and violence. Please use discretion when listening. We all have our bedtime routine. There's the hygiene part. Maybe you lay out your clothes for the next day, set your alarm, turn out the lights, put down your phone. But another part of the routine is safety. You're about to shut down your senses. It's the most vulnerable part of your life, and you do it every day. So you lock your doors at night. Maybe you have an alarm system. There's a word for the thing we're protecting ourselves from in the middle of the night. The boogeyman. The boogeyman that we want to believe doesn't exist. And then you're confronted with the reality that they do. That's Sacramento prosecutor Keith Hill, who has seen his fair share of boogeymen, but none like this one. This boogeyman is truly the manifestation of a nightmare. The boogeyman. In this story, no one could find him for almost 30 years. To catch him required A groundbreaking forensic discovery and a badass detective who cracked one of the biggest murder cases in history. But the heart of this story is a courageous woman named Nicole. She not only survived this nightmare, she went after the Pokeman. And years later, she realized that what happened to her was only the beginning of this terrifying pattern. The man who attacked her went on to attack many others. And no one could find him.

[C]

Every day I fantasize about him getting caught. Could he figure out where I live? Is he somebody I know? Is he in my own community? Like, those types of things are really hard to live with for that many years.

[B]

The first thing you need to know about Nicole is that she's a pretty fearless person. For most of her life, she wanted to find this guy and unmask him. But that's not where this story ends.

[C]

I wanted to understand what happened to him and what made him be this monster.

[B]

She wanted to meet him face to face. From Sony Music Entertainment and Perfect Cadence. You're listening to Hunting the Boogeyman. I'm Peter McDonell. This is episode one, the Nightmare. I'd like to give you a brief overview of the series. What we know is this started in 1991 in Rohnert Park. Roanort Park, a small town north of San Francisco. It's where Nicole Ernest Pate bought her first home when she was just 19 years old.

[C]

It was a really cute place. I fell in love with it when I saw.

[B]

Was a two story townhome and she lived there with her boyfriend who was six years older. It was a rocky relationship though. So When Nicole turned 21, she dumped him. When her ex moved out, he took pretty much everything with him. All Nicole had left were her bed, a couch, some chairs, and a landline telephone that sat on her bedroom floor. She also had a mortgage to pay all by herself. But for the first time in her life, she was single. She went out, had fun, and started casually dating her friend Mark.

[C]

The guy was, you know, kind of a bad boy. I mean, not bad boy, bad boy. And he kind of, you know, he was the first guy I'd ever dated who had tattoos. And my parents were mortified, mortified that I was going out with a guy with tattoos. I'm like, oh, really? Are you mortified? Oh, this is fun.

[B]

But she didn't want to invite Mark to move in with her. She decided to put an ad in the local newspaper for a roommate. She got some calls right away, but.

[C]

I got this specific inquiry that stuck in my brain because it just sounded like an odd Name? My name is Bob Smith. Really? Your name's Bob Smith? Interesting. And I just remembered his voice. His voice was quite flat and just monotone. And I told him about the room, the rent, where it's located, yada yada. He told me that he was in the construction trade and I believe he said he had kids. Might have said he was married but he, he has to commute for work and so he just needed a room.

[B]

The guy asked when he could come over and see the place. Nicole said well, she had to work on Friday and Saturday, well what about Sunday morning?

[C]

And I said well not too early because I'm sure I'll be out late on Saturday night. He said okay, it was a plan.

[B]

On Friday, Nicole went out with some friends. She got home late, got up early on Saturday. Back then she was a hairdresser and spent all day on her feet.

[C]

Then I came home from work exhausted and I took a bath and she called her friends and I said I'm not going out, I'm staying here.

[B]

She pretty much canceled all her plans and said she wasn't going to set a foot outside until she had to go back to work on Tuesday.

[C]

I'm going to go watch tv. It was hot so I put on this. It was a little green robe that'll become important later. I didn't have anything on underneath so I'm like I'm just going to go lay down on the couch. It's probably 8:30 as I'm starting to get really sleepy.

[B]

Nicole fell asleep on the couch in her living room. Across from her was a sliding glass door that led to her enclosed patio. The other townhomes had their patios in the back. But for some reason Nicole's place was turned around. Her patio faced the parking lot so she used her sliding glass door to come and go. The only problem was she couldn't lock it when she was gone. But she figured ah, she didn't have much to steal anyway and she always locked it when she was home. Her friend Mark had even installed a motion sensor security light above it. When Nicole fell asleep on the couch that Saturday night, the TV was on. Her patio gate was closed. Her sliding glass door was locked and her motion sensor light had a fresh bulb. But at some point after sunset, something woke her up.

[C]

The TV was no longer on and there was an arm around my neck. He had his hand over my mouth and he had a glove on. I caught glimpse of a mask, ski mask. And I realized that he had a gun at my head. Is this a prank and then he very quietly said, don't move. I'm just here to rob you. He attempted to kind of lift me, and I knew my robe would come open, so I sort of shook my head and he put me down, but he still held the gun on me the whole time. And then he walked me upstairs with my hands behind my back. I will never forget the feeling of being walked up the stairs. I will never forget that as long as I live. Because that's when it hit me. Oh, shit. I'm in real trouble.

[B]

What happened next is most people's worst nightmare. The masked man who invaded her home sexually assaulted her for hours. Nicole's life would never be the same.

[C]

I thought about this crime every day of my life and still do, and I always will.

[B]

Estimates vary, but about 80% of the time, victims of rape know the person who attacked them. Nicole had no idea who the man.

[C]

Was, did not know his name, did not know what he looked like. Is he somebody I know? Is he in my own community? It's a really, really weird, scary, strange way to walk around in life. And what I would sit and fantasize about was how I would be informed that he was caught every day. Never told people, never discussed it, never told my husband. I would fantasize about how good it would feel to not have to wonder who he was for the rest of my life and be scared for the rest of my life.

[B]

Last summer, Nicole and I met in person for the first time. She's now 55, tall, confident, she's a lot of fun. She still lives in Sonoma county, but we met at a recording studio in nearby Marin. It was nothing fancy behind a warehouse, but this place is famous. Santana, Van Morrison, Jackson Brown. Too many legends to name had recorded there, and Nicole had heard of it. She was excited to be there. An old, friendly dog greeted us when we came in. Aaron, the engineer, set us up at a little table in a soundproof room.

[C]

Wow. I feel like. I feel like all those, like, you know, popular people on the Internet who did podcasts. Oh, I can hear you.

[B]

Okay, there we go.

[C]

Okay, Now, I grew up here in the 80s and 90s, and when I moved here, it was the land of, you know, hot tubs, peacocks, and rainbows. It was very kind of, like rich hippies. Kind of a place where no one really asked, what do you do for a living? And people were much more interested in what you believed in and who you were as a person.

[B]

When Nicole was 12, her parents went through an ugly divorce. Nicole and her older Brother moved to Marin county with their mom.

[C]

We had very ambitious parents, driven parents, very driven father. He's very good looking. He's very confident. He's very fit. He's very, you know, the cocky fighter pilot.

[B]

You said he was part of Top Gun, I think.

[C]

Yeah, he was. He'll correct me on it. It was the very first class of what they were developing. He used to always make the joke, never be afraid to fly with me because I tried to kill myself on a plane for years, and it never worked.

[B]

When Nicole told me this, I thought, oh, she must have gotten her fearless confidence from her dad. But then she told me about her mom.

[C]

My mother was a teacher, and she raised me from a pretty young age, continually saying, become independent. Never depend on a man, and be confident in yourself as a woman, in all aspects of being a woman, by the way, and not letting society tell you that any part of being a woman is wrong or weak. She was the most fierce person I've ever met.

[B]

That Saturday night, when the masked man appeared in Nicole's house, she didn't hear him come in. The motion sensor light didn't come on, and all her doors were locked. So how did he get inside? The only thing that made sense was that he was already there when she got home from work that day. Hiding while she took a bath, listening while she called her friends to cancel her plans and waiting for the moment when she fell asleep.

[C]

And I kept thinking, he's just here to rob me. He's not going to do anything. My robe, my robe, my robe. Keep it closed. Keep it closed.

[B]

The man wore a ski mask, jacket and gloves, and led Nicole upstairs.

[C]

He hogtied me face down on the bed and then just left me there for a while and just rummaged around my house.

[B]

He put duct tape over her mouth and eyes.

[C]

I kept thinking, is this really happening to me? I can't scream. No one's going to hear me. And if I do scream, he has a gun. Is he going to shoot me? And he was rummaging around my house for a very long time. So I kept thinking, maybe he was just here to rob me. He's looking for something. I don't have anything. I mean, like, look at my house. There's nothing. There's nothing here.

[B]

When Nicole could no longer move, see or speak, the man began to talk.

[C]

He had a very specific voice that I will never forget. He was very monotone, just like the caller was on Thursday. Bob Smith.

[B]

What did he say to you?

[C]

He knew a car I drove like he knew where I worked. He could describe, like the parking lot to the salon where I worked. He knew what my pattern of behavior was. I know exactly where you live. I know what your ex boyfriend looks like. I know how tall he is. I can describe him to you. I can describe your friends that were at your house this week.

[B]

Oh, my gosh. The man would talk to her, then leave the room to rummage through her house.

[C]

He was looking for a specific item, the very high end video camera.

[B]

And he couldn't find it. This happened in 1991, by the way. The video camera belonged to Nicole's mom and was returned to her three weeks earlier.

[C]

So it wasn't in my house.

[B]

He was real angry, but somehow he knew she'd had it.

[C]

And that's when I really started to put the timeline together that he's been in my house before.

[B]

He was looking for something else too. Her ATM card. When he found it in her purse, he asked for her PIN number. Nicole used her chin to point toward the foot of her bed where the PIN number was written on a piece of paper.

[C]

He was like, oh, you can see. So then he added a pillowcase and tied the pillowcase around my head.

[B]

Then he started to play sadistic games.

[C]

He would go downstairs, be very, very quiet, and then he would say again. He'd say, I'm gonna leave. Then he'd come back and he said, no, I'm still here. And he would do that repeatedly.

[B]

The man found Nicole's stereo, brought it into the bedroom, and tuned it to an FM radio station.

[C]

Our love songs. Let's play these love songs.

[B]

He untied Nicole's legs and raped her.

[A]

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[B]

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[A]

The story continues to unfold.

[B]

New episodes Sundays on mgm.

[C]

I'd already had multiple out of body experiences at this point, too, as a protective mechanism. And I was frustrated because I was floating on my. Below my ceiling, looking down at the bed. But I couldn't see his face. It was torture.

[B]

Then the man began cuddling with her, kissing her and acting like he was her boyfriend.

[C]

This person believes that I am his girlfriend somehow and has this warped fantasy. He really believes that. In his head, he believes that I'm his girlfriend. And that's when I was like, this is a psychopath.

[B]

The man said he'd never done anything like this before and he wouldn't ever do it again. Nicole was just so pretty. He said he was sorry.

[C]

You're so kind and sweet and I don't know why I've done this to you. And, you know, I've never done this before and I'll never do this again. So I tried to kind of appease that a little bit. He would start to let me talk, so I would say, why have you done this to me? Well, you know, you were just. You were just so beautiful. And I just didn't think you would ever talk to me. And, you know, I. I didn't think you'd be this nice. And then he'd go, oh, by the way, if you talk about this at all, I'm going to shoot you.

[B]

Then Nicole realized that this guy didn't break in after she fell asleep. He was there when she got home from work that day, hiding somewhere in the house, maybe upstairs in the second bedroom. He'd heard her take a bath and call her friends.

[C]

So good that you don't have any plans until Tuesday? I'm not leaving till then. I don't have any plans either. And all I could think of was my friend Mark, please show up. Please just, you know, know that I'm not answering my phone.

[B]

But the man had unplugged Nicole's phone and put it somewhere. If Mark called, all he'd get was a busy signal. The man raped Nicole three times and then threatened to kill her.

[C]

And then I thought, then how are they going to alert my parents? They're Going to be told your daughter's been raped and murdered in her home and she's got flies all over her body. I cannot have my parents suffer that. I don't care what he does to me. At this point, I did not care. You are not going to put my parents through that.

[B]

Throughout the man's attack, Nicole remained remarkably self possessed. She knew she'd be the only witness, and she began trying to collect as much evidence as possible.

[C]

I was a hairstylist, so I was used to touching people's hair and their face, you know, their heads. Right. This is gonna get a little bit graphic. I was hogtied, and he was attempting to orally copulate me. And I grabbed his head, his face, and I pulled him up and I was like, absolutely not. This is not. Mm, mm. And I fought him. Now that I got his face, I'm gonna feel it. How thick is his skin? Where's his hairline? And I started feeling his ears. Where are his ears? I identified him as someone who had relatively pockmarked skin, high cheekbones, maybe Eastern European, definitely Caucasian. Likely blonde hair, very thin, fine blonde hair. I got all that in like two seconds. I had at the time a bladder infection, which for any woman who's had a bladder infection, you know how miserable they are. So I was like, I have to go to the bathroom. So he lets my feet go, but nothing else. So he walks me to the bathroom by my hair. Doesn't need to. Didn't need to do that. Just felt like it. As I'm walking to the bathroom, there's a mirror to my left in my. Where my sink is. So I take the opportunity to look underneath the tape to see if I can catch his face. I never caught his face, but I saw his hair and it was blonde. But I could also confirm that he was not heavy, but he was thin and soft.

[B]

Did you have any idea who this person might be?

[C]

No, not a clue. I was thinking of any guy I dated, gone out on a date with nothing. I had nothing. He resembled nobody I knew.

[B]

But Nicole had a theory. The man seemed to know what he was doing. She didn't think it was his first time.

[C]

He's a very smart criminal. The cadence of his voice, the formality of the way he spoke, the way he was measured, and his gun. So you know how police officers, they have kind of a formal way of speaking. He's talking in that way. The whole night, he's talking like that. I thought he could be a police officer.

[B]

The man pretended to leave and then suddenly he was back and seemed to savor Nicole's fear. She still couldn't see. She couldn't move. She couldn't really say anything through the duct tape. She said she was so exhausted, she even drifted off to sleep. The. The horror became weirdly disorienting. She had no idea how much time had passed. At some point, she just became sick of it. Her fear faded and she became angry. And she yelled through the tape for him to get the hell out. And then she heard the zipper of a bag. He touched her again, freed her hands from behind her back and bound them in front of her with duct tape. He gave her a butter knife.

[C]

He said, let three songs go by before you cut yourself loose. I want to make sure I have time to get to the bank and get your money. And I don't want anything happening. I don't want you following me. He told me, I will hear the scanner if you call the police, and I will come back and shoot you before they get here, so don't call them. He was walking out my bedroom door, and I could kind of hear him turn around towards me. He said, oh, by the way, you might want to start locking your doors from now on. Somebody might want to come in and try and hurt you. And then he marched out the door.

[B]

She listened for the sound of his feet on the river rocks in her patio. Then for the sound of his car engine. But she didn't hear anything. The third song ended. She ripped off all the duct tape and stood up.

[C]

I'm shaking. I'm in shock. My mom was a volunteer for the Rape Crisis center, of all things. I remember her telling me things that you needed to do to preserve evidence. Don't brush your teeth. Don't drink water. Certainly don't take a shower.

[B]

She pulled on a pair of loose sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Then she found her clothes iron and held it up like a weapon.

[C]

I have to figure out if he's still in the house.

[B]

She tiptoed out of her bedroom and onto the landing. She looked down into her living room and didn't see him. She pushed open the door of the second bedroom and turned on the light. Clear. Then she went down the stairs. Her living room, kitchen, half bathroom, all empty. He was gone. She turned on every light, locked every door. She found her phone on the living room floor. She plugged it back in and called her mom.

[C]

I don't know how she did it. As a mother myself, I don't know how she did it. She was remarkably calm. She was very panicked. But she was calm and very instructional. It was like her operating system kicked in. And she said, I need you to hang up the phone and call 911 right now. And I was like, I'm not calling 911. I told her why? And she said, sweetheart, I know that you feel that way. I need you to call 911 right now.

[A]

Now.

[C]

And I was like, I'm not calling the police. And she said, I'm on my way. When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn more at WhatsApp.com what I bought a new Blink Mini 2K smart security camera. What? I got 2K clarity, sharp enough to see every detail of home when I'm away. Plus audio like I'm in the room, not with my bestie traveling to another city. Plus easy plugins set up to install faster than skipping through podcast ads. But you'd never skip ads, right? Plus, I got all of this for just $49.99. Blink Mini 2K Mini Camera Max Performance Shop [e-mail] Blink.

[B]

Nicole didn't want to call the cops because she thought the man who raped her might be a cop. He said if she reported the rape, he'd hear about it and be back for revenge. Nicole's mom must have driven over 100 miles an hour. And when she turned onto the road in front of Nicole's townhome complex, she saw a police car on the side of the road. Two cops were in the middle of giving someone a speeding ticket. Nicole's mom stopped, jumped out, and screamed for them to help her. They jumped in their patrol car and followed her to Nicole's house.

[C]

And that's how the police got there. I never called them.

[B]

Nicole's mom came in first and gave Nicole a big hug. What the police did next was typical in a rape investigation. Nicole gave them a statement. They began looking for evidence in her home. And the worst part was when Nicole went to the local hospital, where they collected evidence of the rape from her body. It was the middle of the morning when she went back home to take a shower. Her mom went with her. The place was a mess. There was black fingerprint dust everywhere. Police were everywhere. Nicole went upstairs to the bathroom. Turned on the shower. She cried and shook as she scrubbed her skin and hair. And then she got dressed. She tossed some clothes and toiletries into a garbage bag to take to her mom's and left.

[C]

You can burn this house down. I don't care. I'm never, ever stepping foot back in this house again. Never.

[B]

A few days later, Nicole drove to the Rohnert park police station to meet with the investigators assigned to her case. She wondered if they had any leads. The crime was so horribly fresh in her mind. She could recall every detail, right down to the shape of the man's face, sound of his voice, what he said to her, and his behavior. She gathered so much evidence without even being able to see him. Her ability to remember so many details of the rape was unusual. It's actually common for victims of sexual assault to have gaps in their memory and recall it in a nonlinear way, especially at first. It's part of the brain's normal defensive response to extreme psychophysical stress. Nicole was different. She entered the Rohnert Park Police Department, which doubles as the fire department, and sat down in a small room with two investigators, a woman and a man. Nicole was just 21 years old, but her mother always said she seemed 10 years older. As she told them the story of what happened, though, she sensed they weren't exactly following along. They looked skeptical, which was when the female investigator said something that, for Nicole, was almost as much of a violation as the rape.

[C]

She said, this sounds like some sort of, you know, movie plot. Like you made this up from a movie plot. I was in shock.

[B]

They didn't believe her. Nicole's ability to confidently say what had happened seemed to be working against her. They suspected she made it up, that the masked man, the rape, the gun, the silent break in, that it was all fiction. This wasn't only a problem for Nicole, it put everyone who could become the man's next victim in danger. Nicole didn't know it at the time, but the man's attack on her was the first in a series of sexual assaults in Northern California spanning nearly two decades. What she told the police was the first set of clues in the terrifying pattern. But if the police didn't believe Nicole, was anyone even looking for the pattern? Someone needed to connect the dots. Eventually, one of those people would be Paul Holes. A couple years before the pandemic, Cold case detective Paul Holz came up with an idea to solve one of the biggest serial killer cases in history. The Golden State Killer. How he did it, we'll get to that later. All you need to know now is that Paul and a small team of investigators revolutionized detective work worldwide. Their innovation opened the door for for thousands of unsolved violent crimes to finally be solved. One of those cases was this one. And it's also a history making case because it's the first case ever in which this revolutionary crime solving tool was tested at trial. When Paul Holz first learned about the masked attacker who had become known by the moniker the norcal rapist, Paul was just 20, 28 years old at the start of his storied career. It was 1996 and Paul worked as a criminalist at the sheriff's crime lab in Contra Costa County, 50 miles from Rohnert Park. That Halloween, the rapist broke into a woman's home near the sheriff's office. The next morning, when Paul learned about it, he was very concerned. This is a serious offender. I thought there was a high probability that there would be related cases. If Paul could find those other cases, it would help him see the rapist's pattern, anticipate his next move, find him wherever he lurked. Because someone had to do something. Someone had to stop him. On this season of the binge hunting the boogeyman, a serial predator remained on the loose.

[C]

He is kind of the boogeyman in the night that you are truly afraid of.

[B]

And no one could find him.

[C]

A wolf in sheep's clothing.

[B]

He could be in my fantasy football league. It would take an extraordinary innovation to track him down. This DNA technology is going to be pretty significant for these types of cases. And two decades later, a landmark forensic breakthrough. But the suspect wouldn't admit to a single thing.

[C]

The why, the what? The why me? All of those things that I think most victims think about that will probably, you know, eat at me a bit until I get those answers.

[B]

There's really only one source for that information and it's him. Right?

[A]

It's him.

[B]

Don't want to wait for that next episode. You don't have to unlock all episodes of hunting the boogeyman ad free right now by subscribing to the binge podcast channel. It's easy, really. Search for the binge on Apple podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page. Not on apple. Head to getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. As a subscriber, you'll get binge access to new stories on the 1st of every month. Check out the binge channel page on apple podcasts or getthebinge.com to learn more. Hunting the boogeyman is an original production of Sony Music Entertainment and Perfect Cadence. It's hosted and reported by me, Peter McDonnell from Perfect Cadence. I'm the executive producer from Sony Music Entertainment. The executive producers are Catherine St. Louis and Jonathan Hirsch. The series was sound, designed and mixed by Matt Gergle. We used music from Audio Network. The show's production manager was Sammy Allison. Our lawyer is Allison Sherry. Special thanks to Steve Ackerman, Emily Racik and Jamie Myers. If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave a review. It's the best way to support us. Thanks for listening. Limu Emu and Doug Here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.

[A]

Uh, Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.

[B]

Cut the camera. They see us. Only pay for what you [e-mail] Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Ferry Unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates Excludes Massachusetts.