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Betty Broderick, Convicted in 1989 Double Murder, Dies in Custody at 78

Officials list preliminary natural causes pending the coroner’s formal ruling.

Overview

  • Broderick, who was moved to an outside hospital on April 18 for higher-level care, was pronounced dead at 3:40 a.m. Friday, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
  • She was serving a 32-years-to-life sentence after a 1991 conviction for two counts of second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of her ex-husband Daniel Broderick III, 44, and his wife Linda Kolkena, 28.
  • Her son Daniel said she had recurrent septic infections and suffered a serious fall in custody about three weeks before her death that broke ribs and left her on life support in an ICU off prison grounds.
  • Parole boards denied her release in 2010 and 2017 after finding she showed no remorse, and her next eligibility had been set for 2032.
  • The case remained a fixture in American true-crime culture for decades, inspiring books, TV movies, podcasts, and a Netflix miniseries, while official medical details about her final illness remain limited by privacy rules.