Though Osama bin Laden was killed tonight, his spokesperson – who grew up near Murrieta – was still at large.

Adam Gadahn, 31, lived on a goat farm in Winchester before moving overseas and becoming a spokesperson for Al Qaeda. The Justice Department offered a $1-million reward for his capture.

Gadahn made news when he released videos after 9/11 praising Al-Qaeda’s members and scorning the U.S., which he called “enemy soil” in one video.

He was one of Al-Qaeda’s highest-ranking officials, and praised highly – even affectionately – by the organization’s leaders in videos. They called him “Azzam al-Amriki,” or, “Adam the American.”

Bin Laden was killed today in a gun battle during a U.S.-lead strike. It was unavailable tonight whether Gadahn was present during the battle.

He is wanted for treason, and he’s the first American to face this charge in more than 50 years, according to the Justice Department.

In the years following his emergence as an Al-Qaeda leader, his parents declined to talk to media. Other neighbors, friends and acquaintances stepped forward about how shocked they were.

He grew up with his parents and three siblings in Winchester, where his parents, Seth and Jennifer Gadahn, moved after college.

His father, born Phil Pearlman, was the guitarist in the band “The Beat of the Earth” and the editor of U.C. Irvine’s school newspaper during the late 1960s. He later converted from Judaism to Christianity and changed his name to Seth Gadahn, a reference to the biblical hero Gideon.

The couple home schooled Adam Gadahn and his siblings. In his teen years, Gadahn grew fascinated by an extreme, demonic style of music called death metal. He formed a one-man band called Aphasia and wrote articles for Xenocide, a death metal fan ‘zine, recalled Jon Konrath, the magazine’s editor in an email interview.

His parents sent him to live with his grandfather, Carl K. Pearlman, in Santa Ana around this time. While in Orange County, Gadahn studied Islam at a mosque in Garden Grove, converted to the religion and befriended fundamentalists.

The U.S. Justice Department announced they arrested Gadahn in Pakistan in March 2010, but hours later retracted the announcement, citing a case of mistaken identity.

City News Service contributed to this report.