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Serial killer who was spared execution is killed in prison

Roger Reece Kibbe.png
Posted at 8:01 PM, Mar 01, 2021
and last updated 2021-03-01 23:01:50-05

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California serial killer known as the “I-5 Strangler” in the 1970s and 1980s has been killed in prison.

State correctional officials said Monday that a correctional officer spotted 81-year-old Roger Reece Kibbe unresponsive in his cell at Mule Creek State Prison after midnight Sunday.

His cellmate was standing nearby. Kibbe was initially convicted in 1991 of strangling a 17-year-old who had run away from home in Seattle.

Investigators at the time said Kibbe was also a suspect in six other killings. In 2009, a San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office investigator used new developments to connect him to the old slayings.