'I-5 Strangler' convicted serial killer found dead in prison cell

 A serial killer known as the "I-5 Strangler" may have been killed in his California prison cell over the weekend, according to local authorities.

Roger Kibbe, an 81-year-old who was convicted of slaying at least seven women, was found dead early Sunday morning while prison guards were doing a headcount, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation wrote in a statement.

Kibbe's cellmate, Jason Budrow, 40, was standing in the enclosure while the serial killer was unresponsive on the floor, the statement said, adding that Kibbe was pronounced dead less than an hour later after being transported to a medical facility.

Mule Creek State Prison officials are investigating his death as a homicide.

This photo provided by the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation shows inmate Roger Reece Kibbe, 81. Kibbe a serial killer known as the "I-5 Strangler" in the 1970s and 1980s has been killed in the prison where he was serving multiple life sentences, state correctional officials said Monday, March 1, 2021. Kibbe was unresponsive in his cell at Mule Creek State Prison southeast of Sacramento shortly after midnight Sunday. 

Kibbe was first convicted in 1991 of killing Darcine Frackenpohl, 17, whose nude body was found 1,000 feet away from her dress by a passerby four years prior to the trial. Kibbe was suspected of more killings, but prosecutors at the time were unable to link him to those deaths.

In 2009, San Joaquin County attorneys connected him to the murder of six women between the ages of 19 and 29 following new forensic developments. He pleaded guilty, and the remains of one victim, 21-year-old Lou Ellen Burleigh, were not found until 2011.

Kibbe was spared from the death penalty after prosecutors determined he was unlikely to face execution. His cellmate was convicted of first-degree murder in 2011 and is serving a life sentence.

'I-5 Strangler' convicted serial killer found dead in prison cell (washingtonexaminer.com)