LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — One of Northeastern Pennsylvania's most notorious killers has died.
Henry Stubbs was convicted of the brutal murders of a mother and her 6-year-old daughter in Luzerne County in 2001.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Stubbs, but he was eventually sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison.
State Prison officials are investigating Stubb's death.
Infamous killer Henry Stubbs is dead.
He was convicted in the brutal murders of a young mother and her six year old daughter in Wilkes-Barre in 2001.
The I-team's Andy Mehalshick reported on the murders 24 years ago.
A crime that still haunts many in the community.
The 60-year-old Stubbs was found unresponsive in his cell at SCI Huntington.
He was pronounced dead at the hospital. The state police are investigating. He was serving two life sentences for a crime that many people in the community say they will never forget because of its sheer brutality.
Henry Stubbs had nothing to say as he was brought to court. He had just been arrested for the murders of 33-year-old Elena Herring and her six-year-old daughter Viktoria Ivanova in their Stark Street Wilkes-Barre home in December of 2001.
Herring was raped and strangled.
Her daughter was hung in the basement with an electrical chord. I spoke with neighbor Gary Muchler in 2001.
"It's still sad watch where your kids are going," expressed Muchler.
Muchler says he often thinks about the murders.
"That was very horrifying, that was one that we couldn't believe. One of the early ones something like that never happened around here," said Muchler.
Current Wilkes-Barre Police Chief Joe Coffay, seen here on the front porch of the Stark Street home, says the murders still haunt him.
"I think the most shocking part was finding the young girl in the basement and the condition she was in. To me, it was very shocking. It was probably one of the worst things I've ever seen in my career. At the time I had a young daughter also. It hit me personally," explained Chief Coffay.
Now, retired Wilkes-Barre Detective Bob Zavada, seen here escorting Stubbs to court, says Stubbs was pure evil.
"I won't give Stubbs any credit or notoriety, he was just a brutal street thug. He left us a trail of clues," voiced Zavada.
I interviewed Stubbs by phone from the prison several days after he was arrested. He denied committing the murders.
"I didn't have no reason, no motive, no reason there. What could I have gained, I had no reason," asked Stubbs.
Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce was hired in 2002 as an Assistant D.A. to help prosecute Stubbs.
"This is one of those cases that any people who are on the fence with the death penalty could see why we pursued it," stated D.A. Sanguedolce.
The jury voted 11 to 1 to impose the death penalty, but the vote had to be unanimous so Stubbs was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. The state police are now investigating his death.
