Tiffany Paige Schultz, a 20-year-old White female, was murdered on January 12, 1990, in San Diego, California. She was a student at San Diego State University and also worked as a nude dancer. Tiffany lived in the Clairemont area of San Diego, sharing an apartment with her fiancé, Christopher Jon Burns, and a male roommate. On the day of her death, Burns left for work in the morning and returned in the late afternoon.
He initially noticed nothing unusual, but later that evening, around 8:45 p.m., the roommate returned and opened his bedroom door to discover Tiffany’s body. She had been stabbed more than 50 times in what investigators described as the most brutal of a series of killings that plagued the area in 1990.
The murder of Tiffany Paige Schultz, a 20-year-old White female, was the first in a string of six homicides that terrorized the University City and Clairemont neighborhoods of San Diego. All the victims were women, and several, like Tiffany, were young, White, and lived in or near the Buena Vista Gardens apartment complex. The killings shared disturbing similarities: the victims were attacked in their homes, often during daylight hours, and the assailant used the victims’ own kitchen knives. The brutality and pattern of the crimes led authorities to believe they were the work of a serial killer.
Initially, suspicion fell on Tiffany’s fiancé, Christopher Burns, due to tensions in their relationship, particularly over her job. He was arrested and held in jail for several days, but the district attorney declined to file charges due to insufficient evidence. Burns was later released and eventually testified for the prosecution in the trial of the man ultimately charged with the murders.
The suspect, Cleophus Prince Jr., a 24-year-old man originally from Alabama, was arrested and charged with the murders of six women, including 20-year-old White female Tiffany Paige Schultz. Prince had moved into the Buena Vista Gardens complex shortly before the killings began. He was linked to the crimes through circumstantial evidence, eyewitness accounts, and forensic findings, including DNA evidence in one of the other murders and possession of stolen items. In 2007, Prince was convicted on multiple counts of first-degree murder, burglary, and rape, and was sentenced to death. His conviction included special circumstances for multiple murders and use of a knife in each killing. The case remains one of the most chilling serial murder investigations in San Diego’s history.
