A timeline of events leading to the conviction of an Alton mother who killed her babies
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Paula Sims coverage
Here’s the BND’s coverage leading up to the parole hearing for Paula Sims:
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A timeline of events leading to the conviction of an Alton mother who killed her babies
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Metro-east residents were riveted by news leading up to the 1990 trial of Paula Sims, an Alton woman accused of suffocating to death her 6-week-old daughter, Heather Sims.
Sims, 30, had told police that a masked gunman knocked her unconscious and abducted the baby the year before. Heather’s partially-frozen body was discovered four days later, wrapped in a garbage bag and dumped in a trash can in a public park.
Police found Sims’ story suspicious. She had made a nearly identical claim three years earlier about her infant daughter, Loralei, whose skeletal remains were found in woods near the family’s former Brighton home.
A jury convicted Sims of first-degree murder, concealing a homicide and obstructing justice in Heather’s death. She ultimately admitted to killing both Heather and Loralei. Her husband, Robert Sims, was never charged with a crime.
Sims has been in prison for more than 30 years.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker commuted her life sentence in March, making her parole-eligible for the first time. A hearing before the Illinois Prisoner Review Board is set for Thursday. Sims’ attorney, Jed Stone, will argue that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she killed the babies.
Here’s a timeline of key events leading up to the Sims trial, as published on Jan. 14, 1990, in the Belleville News-Democrat:
June 17, 1986 — Paula Sims, then 26, tells Jersey County police that a masked gunman entered her rural Brighton home and kidnapped 8-day-old Loralei Marie Sims after making Paula Sims lie on the floor.
June 22, 1986 — Skeletal remains believed to be Loralei’s are discovered in a wooded area about 150 yards from the Sims home. No case of death is determined. (Paula and Robert Sims later invoke their Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination during a grand jury probe of the death.)
Feb. 1, 1988 — Paula Sims gives birth to Randy Sims in Alton, where she and Robert Sims had moved shortly after Loralei’s death.
March 18, 1989 — Paula Sims gives birth to Heather Lee Sims in Alton.
April 29, 1989 — Paula Sims tells Alton police that a masked gunman confronted her outside her Alton home, ordered her to go inside, knocked her unconscious and took Heather.
May 3, 1989 — Heather’s partially-frozen body is found wrapped in a garbage bag and dumped in a trash barrel in West Alton, Missouri, directly across the Mississippi River from Alton.
May 5, 1989 — Madison County prosecutors place 15-month-old Randy in a state foster home. Police tell reporters that Robert Sims told detectives he believed his wife killed both babies accidentally and that he feared for Randy’s safety. (Defense attorney Don Groshong later claims police deceived and manipulated Robert Sims into making the statements.)
May 8, 1989 — Police announce that Robert and Paula Sims have refused lie detector tests, that they failed lie detector tests in Jersey County in 1986 and that they are refusing to talk further with investigators.
May 12, 1989 — Jersey County authorities charge Paula Sims with obstruction of justice and concealment of a homicide for allegedly lying to police in 1986. She immediately goes free after her father posts 10% bond on $100,000 bail.
July 1, 1989 — Madison County state’s attorney William Haine charges Paula Sims with obstruction and concealment for allegedly lying to police about Heather’s disappearance and for hiding the infant’s body.
July 10-11, 1989 — Paula Sims’ parents, Orville and Nylene Blew of Cottage Hills, invoke the Fifth Amendment during a Madison County grand jury probe of Heather’s death and the dumping of her body. Prosecutors force the Blews to testify by granting them immunity from prosecution.
July 11, 1989 — A weeping Paula Sims is arrested and held without bail less than an hour after the Madison County grand jury indicts her for first-degree murder in Heather’s death.
Aug. 7, 1989 — A Madison County judge refuses to set bail for Paula Sims after a hearing in which Robert Sims invokes the Fifth Amendment.
Dec. 14, 1989 — Madison County Associate Judge Ellar Duffwilliams grants temporary custody of Randy Sims to Robert Sims, stipulating that the boy not be allowed contact with Paula Sims.
Jan. 8, 1990 — Jury selection begins in Paula Sims’ murder trial, which had been moved to Peoria County due to intense publicity in the St. Louis region.
Jan. 9, 1990 — Opening arguments begin with Assistant State’s Attorney Don Weber leading the prosecution.
This story was originally published October 28, 2021 at 9:00 AM.