The cuff links bought by the reporter

The cuff links bought by the reporter were a small gold pair that Michelle McNamara hoped might connect a retail purchase to the East Area Rapist / Original Night Stalker investigation. She arranged to have them shipped overnight, then brought them to investigator Larry Pool for comparison with jewelry stolen from victims’ family. The victims and a relative familiar with the original jewelry examined an image of the pair; the resemblance proved insufficient, and Pool later told McNamara they were not the same cuff links.

Purchase and Possible Risk

The day after placing the order, McNamara called The Kid and said she was having the cuff links shipped overnight to her. The Kid asked whether they were going to a post-office box. McNamara considered a risk specific to the purchase: if the East Area Rapist / Original Night Stalker happened to work for a retailer entering customer addresses, he might notice someone paying forty dollars for next-day delivery of an eight-dollar pair of cuff links. The possibility made the delivery more than a matter of convenience; it raised the prospect that the purchase itself could attract attention.

Decision to Approach Investigators

McNamara concluded that the best course was to give the cuff links to investigators. She also recognized that she had taken an unauthorized initiative and worried that the investigators might resent it. A scheduled first interview with Larry Pool in Orange County offered an opportunity to bring them forward, though she planned to do so only if the meeting seemed to be going well. The pair was in a square Ziploc bag, ready to be handed over rather than kept as a private lead.

Pool’s reputation made the encounter intimidating to McNamara. He had worked on the case for fourteen years and had been involved in efforts to expand California’s DNA database through California Proposition 69. McNamara expected a remote, procedure-focused investigator and initially judged that he would not welcome the story behind the cuff links. As the interview ended, however, she began explaining quickly, rustled through her backpack, and nudged the bag across the conference table. Pool listened without making his reaction apparent and examined the cuff links carefully.

Comparison and Result

After McNamara returned to Los Angeles, Pool tracked down the victims and e-mailed them a high-resolution image of the cuff links. The victims said the jewelry had belonged to a deceased family member and had been in their possession only a short time before it was stolen. They thought the pictured pair resembled theirs but were wary of allowing that resemblance to settle the question. They contacted another family member who knew the jewelry better; a couple of days later, Pool informed McNamara that the cuff links were not the same pair.

The comparison therefore ended the lead without establishing a connection between the purchased object and the stolen family jewelry. The cuff links had prompted a concrete investigative check, but resemblance alone could not authenticate them. Their value in the episode lies in that distinction: a privately pursued possibility became something investigators and people familiar with the original jewelry could test, and the test produced a negative result.