I am 45 now. When I was say about 10 years old there was big news about a vampire man in Sacramento. I think his name was Richard Chase. Very interesting person. He did terrible things to animals as well as people. What is up with this dude now?
– printndiddie23, Sacramento
In the late 1970s, Richard Trenton Chase killed six people in the Sacramento area. He was known as the "Vampire Killer" because he drank the blood of his victims.
According to stories in The Bee, Chase said he did so to heal his own heart ailments.
He was tried in Santa Clara County because of the intense pretrial publicity in Sacramento that surrounded the deaths of his victims, including the mutilations of two women.
He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but a jury found him guilty in 1979 and sentenced him to death.
Chase committed suicide in his San Quentin cell in 1980 while awaiting execution.
He was the subject of a 1992 book, "The Dracula Killer," by former Sacramento County Sheriff's Lt. Ray Biondi and writer Walt Hecox.
What happened to 47-year-old Stanley "Doug" Riddle who apparently accidentally shot his girlfriend Georgina Ramirez-Sanchez in the head after a night of drinking. This happened in the late 1990s, I believe.
– Skydawg, Sacramento
A Sacramento County jury convicted Stanley Douglas Riddle of murder in the July 1997 shooting death of his girlfriend, Georgina Ramirez-Sanchez.
According to a story in The Bee, Riddle and Ramirez-Sanchez had been dating for about six months. They had gone to a local bar and returned to the home on Lincoln Avenue in Carmichael that Riddle shared with two men.
They continued drinking, then started arguing, awakening one of the roommates, who said he turned up his TV to try to drown out the yelling. Then without warning, he said, a shot was fired.
The roommates found Riddle standing over his girlfriend's body.
Riddle reportedly told deputies that he was trying to get the gun out of Ramirez-Sanchez's hand when it discharged.
Riddle, now 59, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison and is in California State Prison, Solano in Vacaville.
A friend of mine from high school, Mark Colquitt, was murdered in 2011. Have they any leads?
– Colleen Sellards, Sacramento
Augustin Aranda, 29, was arrested in October in the March 8 shooting death of Mark Vincent Colquitt, 48.
Police found Colquitt lying near 21st Avenue and Franklin Boulevard about 5:45 a.m. after residents reported hearing gunshots. He died at a local hospital.
Detectives have not identified a motive for the shooting, but they received information that led to Aranda as a possible suspect.
With the help of the state Department of Justice's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, Aranda was located living in Imperial County under an assumed name.
He is being held without bail in the Sacramento County jail.
– Cathy Locke
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