Leslie Closner, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 1988 for the horrific killing of his girlfriend, Jan Ferguson, will remain incarcerated after the California Board of Parole Hearings yesterday, June 10, 2025, rescinded a February 2025 grant of parole.
Closner was sentenced to 25 years to life for the crime, which included strangling Ferguson, raping her corpse multiple times, and cannibalizing parts of her body.
The decision means Closner will stay in prison until another parole hearing is legally mandated. The Sutter County District Attorney’s Office has consistently advocated for Closner to remain behind bars for the rest of his life, a stance they reaffirmed following the Board’s reversal.
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“The People would like to thank the victim’s family for their dedication all these years, for attending every hearing and representing their loved one so fiercely,” the Sutter County District Attorney’s Office stated. “The Sutter County District Attorney’s Office will continue to represent the people of the state of California in these hearings, speaking up for justice for the family of his victim and the well-being of the community.”
The brutal crime occurred on October 16, 1987.
Closner and Ferguson had checked into a motel for her daughter’s wedding when a fight escalated. Closner shoved Ferguson to the floor and strangled her to death. According to a parole review document, he then moved her body to a bed, ripped off her clothes, and raped her corpse.
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After attempting resuscitation and fleeing the room, Closner returned for his wallet, re-entered through an open window, and again had sex with Ferguson’s corpse. He then bit off both of her nipples and swallowed them before fleeing the motel. He turned himself in to Oregon police two days later.
During parole hearings, Closner has attributed his violent tendencies to “negative core issues that extend back from early childhood and in relationship with my mother,” claiming physical abuse as a child and witnessing his mother’s naked body.
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