A man convicted in the 1980 murder of two UC Davis students died in prison Monday , the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said.
According to CDCR, Richard J. Hirschfield was pronounced dead around 4:50 a.m. by a nurse at California Medical Facility, near the city of Vacaville. He was 75.
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Hirschfield had been serving time in Washington State for a child rape conviction from 2002 when DNA evidence linked him to the deaths of John Riggins and Sabrina Gonzales, both aged 18.
The couple was abducted from Davis and their bodies were discovered days later near Lake Natoma. The case was known to locals as the “sweetheart murders.”
Hirschfield was found guilty and sentenced to death in 2013. His death on Monday was determined to be from natural causes, CDCR said.
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