I-5 Strangler Slain in Prison

Roger Kibbe would look for women having car trouble along the road
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 2, 2021 1:31 PM CST
Serial Killer Slain in Cell
Roger Kibbe was found dead in his prison cell.   (CDCR via AP)

Roger Kibbe, who was convicted in the deaths of at least seven women over two decades in the Sacramento area, was killed Sunday in his cell, California prison officials said. The serial killer, who became known as the "I-5 Strangler" because he seized most of his victims along the interstate, was found dead on the floor of his cell during an inmate count. His cellmate, Jason Budrow, 40, was present, officials said. The case is being investigated as a homicide, the Sacramento Bee reports. A cause of death was not released.

Kibbe was serving multiple life sentences at Mule Creek State Prison. He was first convicted in 1991, per KABC, of strangling a 17-year-old runaway. In 2009, an investigator using updated techniques tied him to other killings; Kibbe pleaded guilty in those cases to avoid the death penalty. Budrow is serving a life sentence for murder without possibility of parole. Prosecutors said Kibbe would look for young women having car trouble, offer to help, then abduct them. He'd take them to isolated places, per ABC10, where he'd rape them and use their clothing to strangle them. (More serial killer stories.)

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