Ronald James Ward, Jr. (1966 – April 11, 2014) was an American serial killer who murdered at least three women and one man in the span of several months in 2000. Initially convicted for the murder of Craig Petrich in Montana, he was later linked by DNA evidence to three other murders, which had occurred in Arkansas and California. Ward died serving his sentence in the Montana State Prison in 2014, but the cause of his death was not disclosed.