Michelle Eileen McNamara (April 14, 1970 – April 21, 2016) was an American true crime author. She was the author of the true crime book I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer and helped coin the moniker "Golden State Killer" of the serial killer identified after her death as Joseph James DeAngelo. The book was released posthumously in February 2018 and later adapted into the documentary series I'll Be Gone in the Dark which debuted on HBO on June 28, 2020.