Rivera had killed Schaefer following an argument over who received the final cup of hot water from a dispenser days prior to his murder. Rivera was convicted of Schaefer's murder in 1999; he received 53 years and ten months' imprisonment added to the sentence of life plus twenty years he was already serving for a double homicide committed in Tampa in 1990. Rivera never confessed to the crime nor gave any motive for the murder. It is suspected Schaefer was killed for being a prison informant, as in the year prior to his murder other inmates had repeatedly thrown human waste at him and twice set his cell on fire. Reportedly, Schaefer's classification officer confirmed that he was murdered in a direct response to his leaking confidential information to authorities pertaining to a well-respected and powerful inmate. Upon hearing of Schaefer's death, the mother of victim Georgia Jessup informed the media she considered Schaefer's own murder a case of long overdue justice, stating: "I've always believed he was going to get this. I just wish it had been sooner rather than later." The judge who had presided over his murder trial, Cyrus Trowbridge, remarked: "He's finally gotten the death sentence he ultimately deserved but couldn't be given." At the time of Schaefer's death, Broward County investigators were in the process of preparing to bring further murder charges pertaining to three unsolved murders—in part to ensure he would never be freed from prison. Sheriff Robert Crowder—who had worked alongside Schaefer for four weeks prior to his July 1972 abduction and assault of Trotter and Wells—would recollect of the case in 2009: "I think [the case] just made law enforcement more aware of the [actual] existence of serial murderers ... It made us aware of things to key on when we have a crime like this [where] there is the potential for it being one perpetrator and multiple victims." In reference to his victims, a fellow panelist at the meeting in which Crowder spoke also stated: "The [homicide] victims are not the only victims; the victims are also the families. The victims are also the law enforcement who work these cases. None of these people who worked this were ever the same." Alleged victims There is no consensus on when or where Schaefer began killing. As Schaefer himself was killed in prison in 1995, the true number of victims he had claimed