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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) – Survivors of the Golden State Killer are remembering the trauma Joseph DeAngelo inflicted upon them four decades before his sentencing this week.

Tuesday’s hearing focused on Joseph DeAngelo’s early crimes in Sacramento County, when he was known as the East Area Rapist.

Pete Schultz and his younger sister were just 11 and five years old when Deangelo broke into their Carmichael home on October 18, 1976.

Joseph James DeAngelo is brought to the court room for the first day of victim impact statements at the Gordon D. Schaber Sacramento County Courthouse on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020, in Sacramento, Calif. DeAngelo will be formally sentenced to life in prison on Friday. The former police officer in California eluded capture for four decades. He has admitted 13 murders and nearly 50 rapes between 1975 and 1986. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool)

“Tied me to the bedpost ’til my hands turned blue. Locked my sister in her room. And performed horrific acts against my mother while she was bound and blindfolded,” Pete Schultz recalled.

They’ve lived with the memory, as a family, for 44 years, but only just share the memory with the victim’s granddaughter in 2020.

The circumstance of Wini Schultz’s resilience and survival hadn’t widely been shared with the rest of the family until after Deangelo was arrested.

“She’s my superhero. To go through what she did, and come out even stronger, is an example that both of us have,” said 26-year-old Kendyl Shultz, Wini Schultz’s granddaughter.

“She got us to look at the bright side of life and be optimistic. And I think that’s how we all succeeded and have done what we’ve done in our lives,” said Pete Schultz.

Dozens of victims and families got to unload decades of grief, anger and relief in front of the man who caused so much pain.

Peggy was just 15 years old when she became DeAngelo’s second victim on July 17, 1976, a date she said changed her life forever.

DeAngelo broke into her Sacramento house while she was home alone with her 16-year-old sister for the first time over the weekend.

“After rolling out of bed and swinging at him, I was hit several times in the head before being tied up gaged and blindfolded. We were both threatened, and I was raped several times,” Peggy recalled.

She said, despite the brutality, they feel lucky that DeAngelo didn’t kill them.

“This horrific terrorizing and traumatic crime, committed by the East Area Rapist in July of ’76, left a life-long emotional scar that’s invisible to anyone but me and my sister,” said Susan, Peggy’s sister.

Both sisters prospered in their lives, getting married, having children and receiving support from loving families. Their parents, now both in their 90s, lived to see an arrest.

“It’s good to have it behind us. It’s been a long … 42, 44 years,” Peggy said.

“It’s been a long haul. And I feel like we have despite the trauma of that night, we have thrived and come out the other side,” Susan said.

“The end of this trauma is here. He’s a horrible man,” Peggy said. “And none of us have to worry about him anymore.”