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Death of ‘I-5 Strangler’ inside California prison being investigated as homicide

AMADOR COUNTY, Calif. — Convicted serial killer Roger Reece Kibbe was killed inside Mule Creek State Prison on Sunday, prompting a homicide investigation, prison officials confirmed to multiple media outlets.

Kibbe, also known as the “I-5 Strangler,” was serving consecutive life sentences, KCRA reported.

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According to The Sacramento Bee, a corrections officer found 81-year-old Kibbe lifeless on the floor of his cell at around 12:40 a.m. Sunday. His cellmate, 40-year-old Jason Budrow, has since been rehoused in the Administrative Segregation Unit pending the investigation, prison officials confirmed.

Kibbe, who was first convicted in 1991 of strangling 17-year-old Darcine Frackenpohl, was originally sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. In the early 2000s, however, DNA and other evidence linked him to six other killings spanning two decades and dubbed the “I-5 Strangler” slayings, the Bee reported.

Kibbe was ultimately sentenced in 2009 from San Joaquin County to serve life without the possibility of parole for two counts of first-degree murder, KCRA reported.

Budrow, meanwhile, was sentenced to state prison in 2011 to serve life without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder, the outlet reported.

Click here to read more about the “I-5 Strangler” cases.