"Sweethearts" killer, convicted in murder of 2 UC Davis students, dies on California death row
VACAVILLE – The man convicted in the 1980 killing of two young UC Davis students has died in prison.
Officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Richard J. Hirschfield's death on Monday at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville.
John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves were 18-year-old freshmen at UC Davis when they were kidnapped and killed in December 1980. Their bodies were discovered in a ravine near Lake Natoma in Folsom.
For decades, their deaths went unsolved. However, in the early 2000s, DNA evidence linked Hirschfield to the crime.
In 2012, Hirschfield was convicted in the murders and he was given the death penalty. He was then placed on death row at San Quentin State Prison.
Due to California's moratorium on the death penalty, no executions have been carried out in the state since 2006. Gov. Gavin Newsom moved to dismantle San Quentin's death row in 2022, with a plan to move condemned inmates to other prisons within two years.
A total of 610 inmates remain on California's death row, CDCR said.
Hirschfield was 75 years old when he died. CDCR noted that it appears his cause of death was natural.
