Obsession

I'll Be Gone in the Dark narrativizes McNamara's obsession, alongside the Golden State Killer's, as she sets out to hunt after his true identity. She departs from reconstructing crime scenes and theories and provides a glimpse of her own process and how her passion for unsolved cases developed. McNamara's attraction to mystery motivates her research on the Golden State Killer and also the creation of her true crime website, True Crime Diary. Her friends and family come to characterize her as an amateur detective, whose obsession became a virtue when compiling evidence. McNamara's true crime account not only describes the Golden State Killer's crimes, but also her evidence gathering procedure as she trails behind him.

McNamara describes herself as an amateur detective, who has devoted many hours of her life and space in her home to finding out the identity of the Golden State Killer. In Hollywood, 2009, she...