Woman held in decades-old deaths
SAN FRANCISCO — After 40 years of carrying a terrible secret, a man contacted Mendocino County authorities to report that his sister killed four of her babies between 1965 and 1970, authorities said.
When sheriff’s investigators tracked down Cheryl Athene Miller, 59, in San Francisco, where she was unemployed and living alone, she confessed to the murders and was arrested Monday, Sgt. Scott Poma said.
Poma would not reveal how or why Miller killed her children, who ranged in age from 11 days to 14 months, only that her brother had known and that Miller spoke candidly, seemingly ready to unburden herself.
“She kind of wanted to deal with it,” Poma said.
Miller was arraigned Wednesday on four counts of murder in Mendocino County Superior Court and was being held on $2 million bail. If convicted, she could face life in prison without parole.
She did not enter a plea, and her next court date was set for Nov. 17.
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