08 March 2019 :

Juan Corona, California’s most prolific serial killer, dies of natural causes. Corona died Monday morning in a hospital, more than four decades after he hacked to death 25 farmworkers and buried most of them in a prune orchard near Yuba City in Sutter County, prison officials announced. Corona, 85, born in Mexico, was serving 25 concurrent life sentences after being convicted of 25 counts of 1st-degree murder. There was no death penalty in California when he was sentenced in 1973. Corona was denied parole 8 times since 1984 and was next eligible for a hearing in 2021. In May 1971, authorities found 25 mutilated bodies of male, middle-aged farmworkers in orchards along the Feather River in Sutter County. Many of the victims lived on a Marysville skid row and were considered “fruit tramps,” men who would follow the orchard harvests finding work. Corona was tried in Colusa County and found guilty in January 1973. 5 years later, his conviction was overturned by an appellate court and he won a new trial. His second trial was held in Alameda County, and he was again convicted of all 25 murders in 1982. Authorities have said over the years that Corona’s body count could be higher, and his name is likely to be brought up when a body is uncovered in Sutter County.