UKIAH, Calif., Nov. 2 (UPI) -- A 59-year-old California woman could face life in prison with no parole after confessing to killing four of her infant children between 1965 and 1970.
Cheryl Miller did not enter a plea Wednesday in Mendocino County Superior Court and was held in a county jail in Ukiah, northwest of Sacramento, in lieu of $2 million bail, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Investigators said Miller told her brother about the first three killings before the fourth child died in 1970 and he had kept the secret until coming forward in August 2005 out of guilt.
The delay in the arrest was caused by the need to retrieve medical and death records, the report said.
The children ranged in age from 11 days to 14 months, Sgt. Scott Poma, of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Department, told the Chronicle. At the time, neither of the two fathers of the children was present nor did either express any suspicions, although Poma said it was difficult to understand.
"When you lose four children you're either very unlucky or you're responsible," he said.
How the children died was not disclosed.
