Q: Has the man who killed all those girls and was known as the "I-5 Strangler" died? I knew one of the victims. - Someone Who Knew a V, Sacramento
![Kibbe_014a[1].jpg1.jpg](http://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/Kibbe_014a%5B1%5D.jpg1.jpg)
Roger Reece Kibbe is now 71 and in prison at the Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, records show. He passed his 19th year in prison last June. (Photo at left is of Kibbe from a 2008 court hearing.)
In August 2009, Kibbe finally admitted that he killed six young women investigators had long suspected were his victims, The Bee reported.
Kibbe pleaded guilty to killing Lou Ellen Burleigh in 1977 and Lora Heedrick, Barbara Ann Scott, Stephanie Brown, Charmaine Sabrah and Katherine Kelly Quinones, all in 1986.
In exchange for the plea, which included special circumstances of rape, kidnapping and a previous murder conviction, prosecutors agreed they wouldn't seek the death penalty or charge him for additional crimes.
Kibbe already was serving time for the 1991 slaying of 17-year-old Darcine Frackenpohl, a runaway from Seattle whose body was found in El Dorado County.
In November 2009, Kibbe was sentenced to six consecutive life terms.
"This will ensure he'll never have the opportunity to have parole," a deputy district attorney with San Joaquin County, told The Bee in 2009. "Basically, he's going to die in prison now."
Authorities long suspected Kibbe was responsible for many unsolved homicides where women were sexually assaulted and killed near major roadways. He often left a signature - random cuts in his victims' clothing.
Investigators struggled with evidence because in many cases the victims' bodies were decomposed and there was no DNA evidence.
Bruce Henderson authored the book "Trace Evidence," which chronicled the case of the so-called I-5 Strangler.
"There's one missing, Karen Finch," said Bruce Henderson authored the book "Trace Evidence," which chronicled the case of the I-5 Strangler.
Finch, a 25-year-old Lodi resident, was found sexually assaulted and killed in a ditch along Kiefer Boulevard, a half-mile north of Jackson Road, in 1987.
A prosecutor said there wasn't enough evidence to charge Kibbe in Finch's killing, but that her case is "still being investigated."
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