Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.
QUESTION: In fall 1985, two women went to work at an office along east Highway 50. It was a Saturday, so, I surmise, they were intending to catch up on some uncompleted tasks. They were killed by the custodian, I believe. I have been haunted by the fact that they were doing extra but were killed doing their job. Was the killer caught and what happened to him?
Submitted by: Robert, Sacramento
ANSWER: Timothy Pride, a janitor, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for fatally stabbing two female co-workers at Progressive Casualty Insurance in Rancho Cordova on the Labor Day holiday in 1984.
His victims, Kimele Speich, 29, and Catherine Keltner, 23, were at the office on the holiday to catch up on their work. According to stories in The Bee, Keltner sustained about 60 stab wounds, and Speich, 19. Both women died of stab wounds to the heart.
Pride's criminal record reportedly began at the age of 14 or 15 with a rape and included dozens of arrests as a juvenile and adult for rapes, assaults, vehicle theft, robbery, parole violations and felonies.
In October 1994, Pride, 41, was shot and killed by a guard at San Quentin State Prison after he attacked another inmate.
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