How a lone cop cracked an ‘I-5 Strangler’ mystery

Already imprisoned murderer Roger Kibbe confessed in 2003 to being the so-called I-5 Strangler, responsible for killing six women in the ‘70s and ‘80s. But the body of one of his victims, 21-year-old Walnut Creek secretary Lou Ellen Burleigh, whom he strangled in 1977 after tricking her into a phony job interview, was never found. Until now. The LA Times has the backstory of how officers tried years ago, with Kibbe’s help, to locate her remains near Lake Berryessa, and how off-duty Napa County sheriff’s deputy Michael Bartlett (pictured along with the victim) came upon them in a creek bed in February.