O.C. 'Serial Killer' Dies After Falling Ill

An autopsy is expected to be performed next week on the body of an Orange County jail inmate suspected of killing six people.

Itzcoatl Ocampo was discovered ailing in his single-man cell about 6:35 p.m. Wednesday. The 25-year-old Ocampo was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana where he was pronounced dead at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Orange County Sheriff's Department Lt. Jeff Hallock said.

The cause of the death was not immediately available.

Ocampo had been suspected of killing four homeless men in Orange County in December 2011 as well as a mother and son in October 2011.

Ocampo was arrested on Jan. 13, 2012 shortly after the death of John Berry, who was allegedly killed in an attack about a quarter mile behind a Carl's Jr. at 3110 East La Palma Avenue in Anaheim.

The first of the four men Ocampo is suspected of killing was 53-year-old James McGillivray, attacked as he slept outside a Placentia shopping center. Eight days later, the body of Lloyd Middaugh, 42, turned up on Anaheim's Santa Ana River Trail. On Dec. 30, 2011, 57-year-old Paulus Cornelius Smit was found dead behind the Yorba Linda library.

Ocampo was also charged in the deaths of Raquel Estrada, 53, and her 34- year-old son, Juan Herrera.  The Iraq war veteran was to stand trial in May 2014.

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas had announced that prosecutors would seek the death penalty.