Murderer serving life sentence dies in hospital

SALEM – Authorities say a 77-year-old man convicted of murder died at a Salem hospital.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that Leroy Earp was taken to the hospital from prison last week.

The Oregon Department of Corrections says at some point Earp became unresponsive and died Monday afternoon. Corrections officials say his death appears to be of natural causes. It wasn’t clear why Earp was taken to the hospital.

Authorities are investigating.

Earp was sentenced to life in prison in 1982 for the stabbing death of Ann Peery, a high school teacher in Milwaukie who was killed in her home. Earp at the time worked as a janitor at the school and was on parole for a previous murder.

Earp was sentenced to prison in 1966 for the murder of a Portland woman found nude in the trunk of his car after she had been strangled.