The Nation : Mother Indicted in Death of 2nd Infant

A grand jury in Edwardsville, Ill., returned a murder indictment against a woman whose two baby daughters were killed three years apart under nearly identical circumstances, a prosecutor said. The Madison County grand jury charged Paula Sims, 29, with two counts of first-degree murder in the suffocation death last spring of 6-week-old Heather Sims, said State’s Atty. William Haine. Multiple murder counts in a single death are not unusual in Illinois. Heather’s body was found May 3 in a trash can near West Alton, Mo., about 10 miles north of St. Louis. In both that case and the 1986 death of Sims’ 13-day-old daughter, Loralei, the mother reported that a masked gunman abducted the girls from their home while the father was away at work. Sims was arrested at her parents’ home shortly after the indictments were returned, said county sheriff’s Sgt. Don Wein.