For decades, Bonnie Ueltzen said nothing about the teenage relationship that came close to ending in marriage.

She was once engaged to Joseph DeAngelo, who would later become known as the Golden State Killer. But Ueltzen called off the engagement and returned the ring. Not long afterward, DeAngelo appeared outside her family’s home in the middle of the night, carrying a gun.

Now, Ueltzen is speaking publicly about the frightening incident for the first time. She recounts the encounter exclusively in Fox Nation’s new four-part documentary, The Golden State Killer: Unmasking A Monster.

“I was absolutely in a panic,” she said. “I had no idea if he would pull the trigger.”

Ueltzen said she wishes she had reported DeAngelo to police, especially because the confrontation occurred shortly before he is believed to have begun the crime spree that would terrorize California for decades.

DeAngelo, now 80, was eventually connected to a long series of rapes and murders across California. During one of his attacks, he reportedly told a victim, “I hate you, Bonnie.”

“I wish things had gone differently. I wish as a 19-year-old I had stepped forward, taken the initiative, talked about it,” Ueltzen said in the documentary.

“I wish that my father had picked up the phone, even after the fact, and reported it,” she added. “It may just have put him on another track. No one will know.”

The revelations come more than six years after DeAngelo admitted to 161 uncharged crimes and pleaded guilty to 13 murders and 13 kidnappings. Many of the offenses were rapes that were too old to prosecute.

Even after his convictions, however, the motivation behind DeAngelo’s decades-long reign of terror remained largely unknown.

For years, investigators considered whether the answer might be connected to a woman named Bonnie — a name one victim recalled hearing DeAngelo repeat while sexually assaulting her in 1978.

“As the East Area Rapist is physically raping the victim, he is sobbing and saying, ‘I hate you, Bonnie. I hate you, Bonnie,’ over and over,” investigator Paul Holes told ABC News’ 20/20 in 2018.

“That told me he had some significant female in his life named Bonnie. He had some anger against what Bonnie, or what he perceived Bonnie, had done to him. And he’s taking that anger out on this victim that he’s raping,” he added.

“We didn’t know, was Bonnie his mom? A wife? Ex-wife? Girlfriend? We just knew that there was a Bonnie in his life.”

The mystery began to unravel when detectives discovered a newspaper article announcing the engagement of Ueltzen — then known as Bonnie Jean Colwell — to Joseph James DeAngelo. The report finally put a face to the unidentified Bonnie.

“Now we have a guy that has a Bonnie in his life, and we couldn’t find any indication that they ever got married,” officer Holes explained in the 2018 segment.

‘So, something happened in that relationship that caused them to part – and that probably is indicative of a relationship that went sideways,’ he added. 

The mystery of what happened between the pair – and whether it played any role in setting DeAngelo on his path toward barbaric violence – is finally explored in the new documentary. 

According to Ueltzen, it all began with an argument over school. 

The pair had started dating at just 18 and were in their first semester at California State University when they enrolled in what she described as an ‘abnormal psychology’ class.

Ueltzen was pulling straight A’s while DeAngelo was failing – a disparity she said soon became a source of bitter conflict, with his behavior growing increasingly ‘aggressive and angry.’ 

She said he demanded that she help him cheat on the next midterm exam so he could secure a passing grade, but Ueltzen, the daughter of two teachers, said cheating was simply a boundary she would not cross. 

‘It was the only thing he wanted to talk about,’ she said. ‘The rest of our life went on hold while he was trying to get me to comply with what he had planned and I was having none of it.’ 

The constant tension eventually reached a boiling point. Ueltzen, who had become engaged to DeAngelo shortly after they began dating, said she realized she ‘did not want to spend more time with this man.’

At 19, she made the decision to call off the engagement. 

She invited DeAngelo to her parents’ home, where she broke the news and returned his engagement ring. She said he left ‘very, very angry’ – but what happened next would haunt her for decades. 

Two weeks later, Ueltzen was asleep in her ground-floor bedroom at her parents’ home when she was jolted awake by a tapping sound coming from the glass window. 

‘It was Joe standing outside and he had a revolver in his hand and he was pointing at me through the window,’ she revealed.

He ordered her to get dressed, telling her they were going to Reno, Nevada, that very night to get married. 

Ueltzen said she managed to slip out of bed and wake her father, who took DeAngelo outside to the front porch, where the two talked for what she estimated was nearly two hours.

DeAngelo eventually left, and law enforcement was never called. It would be the last time Ueltzen saw him for nearly five decades – until his arrest in 2018. 

‘I have no idea what that conversation was about,’ she said. ‘To the day that he died, he never discussed it with me.’ 

Ueltzen has her own theory about what happened on that night: she believes her father struck a deal with DeAngelo – no call to police in exchange for never contacting her again.

‘And he never did,’ she said during the interview.

During their few months together, however, Ueltzen recalled several disturbing incidents, including one in which DeAngelo killed a dog while the pair were riding his motorcycle.

She said a German Shepherd would regularly chase them as they rode, and one day, when the dog approached, DeAngelo ‘turned and kicked it underneath the chin.’

‘The dog dropped dead,’ she said. ‘I think it broke its neck.’ 

She also recalled DeAngelo introducing her to firearms, even buying her a .22 rifle. The couple would practice target shooting together at his home. 

‘He liked guns,’ she said. ‘He was very proficient, and he would get into restricted property where he would go poaching for fish and game.’ 

The couple never married. Instead, DeAngelo went on to marry Sharon Huddle in 1973, and they eventually had three children before separating sometime in the 1990s.

But behind closed doors, neighbors later described the marriage as troubled and volatile.

‘He would come by on a regular basis and scream and yell from the driveway and never step inside,’ one neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, told the VC Star in 2018.

‘He and Sharon would get in epic shouting battles. It was a very volatile relationship when he came over, and it was not good,’ they added. ‘It was just very toxic.’

Meanwhile, DeAngelo, a former police officer, spent four decades hiding in plain sight as he terrorized California under a succession of names – the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist and, ultimately, the Golden State Killer. 

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He evaded law enforcement for decades until investigators turned to a revolutionary DNA technique that finally exposed him.

His genetic profile was linked to the crimes through GEDmatch.com after a relative had uploaded their DNA to the genealogy website, helping detectives trace the connection back to him.

In April 2018, a 72-year-old DeAngelo was arrested at his Citrus Heights home, where he reportedly protested in a high-pitched voice: ‘I have a roast in the oven!’

When Ueltzen learned from her husband that DeAngelo had finally been arrested, she said she was ‘absolutely floored.’ 

Prosecutors had initially sought the death penalty, but DeAngelo struck a plea deal in which he agreed to plead guilty to all charges in exchange for life in prison.

In August 2020, DeAngelo was sentenced to 11 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, plus eight years, bringing an official end to his sinister decades-long saga of kidnappings, rapes and murders. 

‘It’s difficult to carry for me that I was ever involved with him,’ Ueltzen tearfully said in the new documentary. ‘That he is the cause of so much damage to people, to other women, to the people that he murdered in the most brutal, brutal ways.’ 

NYPD body-camera and drone footage released Friday shows the final moments of an hour-long standoff on the Brooklyn Bridge last month, ending when a knife-wielding man lunged toward police and was shot.

The footage shows 41-year-old Chaun Bottom walking along the bridge cables around 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 4. Detective Nicholas Giordani, a member of the NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit, climbed hundreds of feet above the East River and repeatedly urged Bottom to come down and drop his knife.

“What’s going on, man? What brought you up here?” Giordani asks.

“What’s going on in your day that you think this is the only option you have?” he tells Bottom.

For roughly 50 minutes, Giordani tried to persuade Bottom to move away from the bridge’s edge, asking what had led him there.

“This is the last place I want you to be right now, man. Whatever’s going on in your life, we could talk about it, we could discuss it,” Giordani says in the footage.

“I don’t want to see you up here. I understand the view is nice, but there’s no reason to be up here right now.”

At one point, the detective urges Bottom to return toward the center of the bridge instead of remaining over its side.

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“Look, man, I know you don’t know me, I get that, but I care about you more than you’re gonna know, and I plan on spending however much time I can to show you that,” Giordani says.

“There is stuff left. You have your whole life ahead of you,” he continues. “Don’t say there’s nothing left. Yes, there is. I promise you there is plenty ahead of you.”

As the standoff neared its end, Giordani noticed Bottom’s weapon and told him to drop it if he moved back.

Bottom is then seen raising the knife and lunging toward the detective as officers shout, “Drop the knife.”

Sgt. Dennis Dooley, who was positioned on the bridge’s roadbed, fired one shot, striking Bottom.

After the shooting, officers rushed to pull Bottom away from the side of the bridge while continuing to order him to drop the weapon.

Bottom was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The footage did not make clear what Bottom was saying to the officers. ESU Chief Gerard V. Dowling previously told reporters that Bottom said: “I want to die, I want you to kill me, I have a bomb, you’re going to make me do something bad to the cops.”

The NYPD said its Force Investigation Division will continue reviewing and analyzing the fatal shooting.

The FlyDubai co-pilot accused of stabbing the captain and nearly triggering a catastrophic crash had reportedly been grounded by Oman Air in 2024 after the airline discovered he had visited radical Islamic websites, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The source said the co-pilot moved to Dubai later that year. The individual also told Fox News that the suspect had spent a substantial portion of his life outside Oman, including time with his mother, who is from Syria.

According to the source, FlyDubai did not contact Oman Air to check the co-pilot’s background before hiring him.

The latest information follows a Wall Street Journal report published Friday. Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said the Omani national had previously been prohibited from flying because of concerns that he had adopted radical ideological views before FlyDubai later hired him. The Journal said it remained unclear whether Omani authorities informed other countries or airlines about those concerns.

Fox News has not independently confirmed why Oman Air grounded the co-pilot.

The alleged assault took place Wednesday aboard FlyDubai Flight 1073, which was flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

Passengers and officials said the co-pilot allegedly attacked the captain inside the cockpit, sending the aircraft into a steep dive that nearly caused it to break apart. Two reserve pilots traveling on the flight reportedly regained control and diverted the plane safely to Saudi Arabia. Passengers and crew members then helped overpower the suspect, according to accounts of the incident.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident terrorism on Friday and said the alleged attacker had undergone “Islamic radicalization.”

“He came to crash the passengers on board,” Netanyahu said, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Netanyahu said Israeli authorities are also examining whether the suspect acted alone or received help from others.

The United Arab Emirates is overseeing the investigation. A UAE spokesperson declined to discuss the suspect’s background with the Journal, saying officials did not want to prejudice the inquiry or interfere with its progress.

The incident has intensified scrutiny of airline pilot screening and aviation security on flights serving Israel. Aviation security analysts told the Journal that the episode appeared to represent a serious security lapse, raising questions about whether warning signs were missed before the co-pilot gained access to the cockpit.

FlyDubai has suspended service between Dubai and Tel Aviv following the alleged attack.

FlyDubai did not immediately respond to News Media’s request for comment.

NEW YORK (WABC) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday that the Cornell rape accuser was failed by the people responsible for protecting her, including police and prosecutors.

Visibly outraged, Hochul criticized Cornell University Police, the Tompkins County district attorney and New York’s rape laws before announcing that Attorney General Letitia James would serve as special prosecutor in the controversial case.

At a packed news conference in the governor’s office, James said the matter is now “an active criminal investigation.” She promised that the allegations would receive a full and fair review.

“Every New Yorker deserves to know that when they report a crime, it will be investigated fully and fairly, that they will be seen and heard,” James said. “That is the promise of our justice system.”

Hochul said the system failed Jane Doe. She said information from the woman’s police interview was not provided to the district attorney, who subsequently did not interview her.

“I am deeply disturbed by Cornell University’s police and how they handled this,” Hochul said. She described the decision to send prosecutors only a “partial record” as a failure.

Hochul questioned how police could learn from the alleged victim that she had been “literally been gang raped” and that she was “100%” certain she had been raped, yet fail to elevate those allegations.

She also accused the Tompkins County district attorney of failing to do the “bare minimum” by interviewing the woman after receiving the six-page police report.

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“In what world does the district attorney not interview her or even request the full transcript?” Hochul asked. “That is exactly why we’re here today and why I took the action last night.”

Tompkins County District Attorney Matt Van Houten told ABC News that the six-page summary prepared by Cornell University Police had convinced him that no crime occurred.

Hochul also called for changes to New York’s law governing voluntary intoxication in sexual assault cases, saying lawmakers should address that provision as soon as possible.

Jane Doe’s attorney said he and his client were “pleased” by the governor’s appointment of a special prosecutor, citing “shocking” contradictions between statements from the district attorney and Cornell police.

Van Houten said Friday that he supports the governor’s decision to remove him from the case and pledged to cooperate with the attorney general’s investigation.

Cornell University also supported Hochul’s decision to remove the district attorney from the case and assign it to James.