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Richard J. Hirshfield, the notorious California inmate sentenced to death in connection with the 1980 Sweetheart Murders, a case that took more than 30 years to solve, has died at the age of 75, authorities announced Monday. did.
The victims, Sabrina Gonsalves and John Riggins, were students at the University of California, Davis, and went missing on December 20, 1980. The young couple’s van was found a day and a half later on a country road about 30 miles from Davis.
Their bodies were found under bushes in a nearby ravine. Their eyes and mouths were covered with duct tape and their throats were slit. Riggins was also hit in the head with a sharp object, and investigators found evidence that Gonsalves had been sexually assaulted, CBS News reported.
Richard J. Hirshfield, 75 (CDCR)
Nine years after the murder, investigators arrested David Hunt and Doug Reiner as suspects in the case. The couple spent three years in prison awaiting trial, after which a semen-stained quilt was found in the couple’s van and a DNA test was conducted.
Neither Hunt nor Reiner had a DNA match and were released.
It wasn’t until 2022 that a DNA match was found to convicted sex offender Richard Hirshfield.
The Sweetheart Murder Trial took nearly 10 years to begin, and Hershfield’s brother Joseph Hershfield wrote in a suicide note: “I have lived with this fear for 20 years,” and “Richard did commit the murder, but… I am” was written. I was there. I didn’t kill anyone, but my DNA is still there,” CBS News reported.
According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Hirshfield was sentenced to death on January 25, 2021, after being found guilty in Sacramento County Superior Court of first-degree murder and two counts of use of a firearm with a deadly weapon enhancement. 15. News release. He was executed just a few weeks later on San Quentin’s death row.
The 75-year-old man was pronounced dead at 4:50 a.m. on Dec. 16 by a registered nurse in the hospice ward, prison officials said.
His cause of death was determined to be natural causes.
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