The Gainesville Ripper, later identified as Danny Rolling, carried out a series of brutal murders in the college town of Gainesville, Florida, in the summer of 1990. Rolling, a 29-year-old drifter, had a history of mental health issues and had previously been arrested for burglary and theft. On August 24, 1990, Rolling murdered two University of Florida students, Sonja Larson and Christina Powell, in their apartment. Over the next few days, he would go on to claim the lives of three more young people, including Christa Hoyt, Manuel Taboada, and Tracy Paules. The murders were characterized by their brutality, with the victims suffering from multiple stab wounds and mutilations. The investigation into the murders was led by the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, with assistance from the FBI. As the authorities worked to identify the killer, they discovered a series of cryptic letters and poems left at the crime scenes, which would later be linked to Rolling. On September 7, 1990, Rolling was arrested in Ocala, Florida, after a witness reported seeing him near one of the crime scenes. He was subsequently linked to the murders through DNA evidence and was sentenced to death in 1994. Rolling was executed by lethal injection on October 25, 2006, bringing an end to one of the most notorious serial killer cases in Florida's history.