Death row inmate dies of natural causes

Death row inmate dies of natural causes
07/17/2009 10:06:51 PM PDT

SAN QUENTIN STATE PRISON, Calif.—An inmate who was sentenced to death in 1980 for the kidnapping and killing of two Southern California girls has died of natural causes.

Officials at San Quentin State Prison say 55-year-old Michael Dee Mattison died in an outside hospital facility early Friday morning. The exact cause of death has not been released.

Mattison had been confined to the prison's death row after being convicted of the murder of a 9-year-old girl he kidnapped outside of a Santa Fe Springs community swimming pool in July of 1978, and the kidnapping and murder of a 16-year-old girl in Laguna Beach two months later.

Investigators working on the cases at the time said Mattison confessed to raping and killing both girls.