An autopsy is being performed to determine the 67-year-old’s cause of death, but there were no signs of trauma, the statement said.
Police collected DNA from some of the crime scenes but were unable to find a match for several years.
That changed when investigators found a similar match to Franklin taken from the scene on a second attempt to cross reference a state databank of convicted felons’ DNA.
The match was his son.
Franklin was placed on 24-hour surveillance and a plan was made to obtain his DNA.
An undercover officer posed as a waiter and collected a pizza crust left behind by Franklin. The DNA on that crust came up as a match for the killer dubbed the “Grim Sleeper.”
He was found guilty on 10 counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in the deaths of nine women and one teenage girl between 1985 and 2007.
Franklin was sentenced to death on August 10, 2016 in Los Angeles County, the release said.
California reinstated capital punishment in 1978. Since then 82 inmates have died from natural causes, 27 have died by suicide and 13 have been executed in the state of California. Eight people — including Franklin — have died and are awaiting a cause of death while 14 have died from other causes, according to the release.
CNN’s Giovanna Van Leeuwen contributed to this report.
Source : CNN
