Detectives got their break on November 20, when Bittaker and Norris were arrested on charges stemming from a September 30 assault in Hermosa Beach. According to reports, their female victim had been sprayed with Mace, abducted in a silver van, and raped before she managed to escape. The woman ultimately failed to make a positive I.D. on Bittaker and Norris, but arresting officers discovered drugs in their possession and held both in jail for violation of parole. Roy Norris started showing signs of strain in custody. At a preliminary hearing in Hermosa Beach he offered an apology "for my insanity," and he was soon telling officers tales of murder. According to his statements, girls had been approached at random, photographed by Bittaker, and offered rides, free marijuana, and jobs in modeling. Most turned the offers down, but others were abducted forcibly, the van's radio drowning their screams as they were driven to a remote mountain fire road for sessions of rape and torture. Tape recordings of Jacqueline Lamp's final moments were recovered from the "Murder Mack," and detectives counted 500 photographs of smiling young women among the suspects' effects.

On February 9, 1980, Norris led deputies to shallow graves in San Dimas Canyon and the San Gabriel Mountains, where skeletal remains of Lamp and Jackie Gilliam were recovered. An ice pick still stuck out from Gilliam's skull, and the remains bore other marks of cruel mistreatment. Charging the prisoners with five counts of murder, Los Angeles County Sheriff Peter Pitchess announced that Bittaker and Norris might be linked to the disappearance of 30 or 40 other victims. By February 20, the stack of candid photographs had yielded nineteen missing girls, but none were ever traced, and Norris had apparently exhausted his desire to talk. On March 18 Norris pled guilty on five counts of murder, turning state's evidence against his friend. In return for his cooperation, he received a sentence of 45 years to life, with parole possible after thirty years. Bittaker denied everything. At his trial, on February 5, 1981, he testified that Norris first informed him of the murders after their arrest in 1979. A jury chose to disbelieve him, returning a guilty verdict on February 17. On March 24, in accordance with the jury's recommendation, Bittaker was sentenced to die. The judge imposed an alternate sentence of 199 years and four months, to take effect in the event that Bittaker's death sentence is ever commuted to life imprisonment. Bittaker is still on death row at San Quentin Prison, while Norris still sits at Pelican Bay prison in California.