Paula Sims, Convicted Of Killing Daughters, Paroled From Prison

DECATUR, IL — Paula Sims, who was convicted more than 30 years ago for killing her two infant daughters, was released from prison on Friday after a parole board granted her release, according to state records.

Sims, 62, will be living in Decatur in housing provided by her employer, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Sims’ 13-day-old daughter, Loralei, died in 1986 and her remains were found in Sims’ backyard after Sims initially claimed her daughter was kidnapped.

After the girl’s remains were found, no cause of death was determined, and no one was charged. In 1989, another daughter, Heather, who was six weeks old, was found dead in a trash can and Sims claimed the young girl was taken by a gunman.

Sims was charged with the killing of her first daughter and was later indicted in the death of her other daughter. Sims confessed to killing both girls in 1990 and was sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison without a chance at parole, according to reports.

However, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker granted Sims’ request for a parole hearing earlier this year after a judge had denied the motion. The Madison County prosecutor also opposed parole for Sims, whom prosecutors said repeatedly lied to police, doctors, relatives and others with the claims about how her daughters disappeared.

Sims’ attorney maintains his client suffered from postpartum psychosis at the time she killed her two daughters. On Thursday, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board voted 12-1 to release Sims from prison after more than 30 years.

Sims’ attorney, Jed Stone, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Friday that Sims does not pose a threat to society and spent 32 years in prison without a major violation.