Meeting Bonnie
DeAngelo served in the Navy during the Vietnam War before enrolling in a California community college to study police science. There, he met Bonnie Colwell, to whom he proposed in 1970. She described him as sexually aggressive, often pushing her to do things that made her uncomfortable.
Tipping Point
Colwell broke off the engagement after DeAngelo asked her to help him cheat in his abnormal psychology class. A few nights later, she woke up to DeAngelo outside her bedroom window with a gun aimed at her face, demanding that she accompany him to elope in Reno. The incident is theorized to have been DeAngelo's breaking point.