Garbus was greatly focused on making the docuseries feel “like this was a present-tense journey you are going on with Michelle,” yet there was another piece of the puzzle that deserved equal attention. It was integral to offer a platform to survivors and victims’ families, whose lives were forever changed by California’s most notorious serial murderer — a vociferous, deliberate rejection of DeAngelo’s “silent forever” threat. Whether it was because of their parents — one of the survivors was just a teenager when she was sexually assaulted — or because of way rape was understood in the ‘70s , many of the women who survived their encounters with DeAngelo spent years in silence, not acknowledging the abuse they withstood. In the HBO docuseries, they are openly sharing the truths of their experiences for the first time.