The Murderous Paula Sims

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Brighton, Illinois,

June 17th of 1986

Baby Loralei Sims was only 13 days old when her mother Paula claimed that a masked intruder broke in her home and stole her newborn while her husband Robert was at work. The man had forced Paula to the floor and ordered her not to move for 10 minutes as he ran with the infant. Paula quickly gave a news interview in which in which she begged and pleaded for her baby girl’s safe return.

10 days later police found a deceased baby Loralei in the woods just behind the Sims house. Sadly, Little Loralei’s body had first already been ravaged by local wildlife; her tiny remains were too badly damaged for a cause of death to be identified. There was no evidence which pointed to her killer, meaning no justice for this perfect little angel.

Paula and Robert had a funeral for their first born child, sold their home, and moved to a neighboring town called Alton. The couple soon had a son, Randy, and all was well. It’s said that Robert ensured that the home was very safe from intruders: he installed many locks on the home’s steel doors, there were guns near the entrances. No one was going to take another baby from the Sims again, but then someone did.

Paula gave birth to her third baby, a daughter named Heather, just a year after her son Randy was born. Heather would only live for 6 weeks before another “masked assailant” attacked on April 29th of 1989.

The home where the 2nd murder took place

Paula’s story was a bit different this time. She claimed to have walked outside that night to take the trash out, and this is how she’d encountered another masked gunman. The man had thumped Paula on the back of the head and knocked her out cold; when Robert arrived home 45 minutes later, he found his wife lying on the floor. She told Robert her story and they both raced upstairs to check on their children. Randy was sleeping peacefully in his bed, but baby Heather was missing.

Police searched the home and found absolutely no evidence of any intruder. Paula once again begged that her baby girl be returned, and again that was not in the cards. A few days later baby Heather’s body was found by a fisherman; she’d been wrapped in a trash bag and discarded in a bin.

Unlike baby Lorelei, her sister’s corpse had been discovered in perfect condition; the coroner stated that it appeared as if baby Heather were merely sleeping. It was determined that someone had frozen Heather’s little body, and that whoever was responsible had dumped her body within the past 24 hours. This time it was easy to determine a cause of death: there were cut marks on the inside of the infant’s lips, meaning that Heather had been suffocated.

Investigators, who were well aware that lightening rarely strikes twice, knew that Paula and most likely her husband Robert had killed the girls, but they still had to prove it. Police looked deeper into Paula’s story of having been knocked unconscious for 45 minutes, and they found it strange that the mother had remembered the chain of events so perfectly. Not only that, upon awakening Paula claimed to have jumped up and began running around checking on the babies. It was determined that this was physically impossible: a person who was out cold for 45 minutes due to a blow to the head wouldn’t remember the incident at all, let alone be up and running around. Then investigators searched the trash bag which Heather had been discovered in; the exact same bags, down to a manufacturer defect, were found within the Sims home.

Paula was charged and convicted with the murder of little Heather, and she was sentenced to life in prison. At a later date Paula would confess to murdering both daughters: the first baby, Lorelei, had been drowned in the bathtub. Baby Heather was suffocated to death, then her tiny corpse had been transported to Paula’s mother’s house and frozen. Grandma had been out of town on vacation at the time, the plan had been to leave the tiny frozen body there for a while before disposing of her. Upon hearing the news that Heather had been taken, the concerned grandmother rushed home early and Paula had been forced to dispose of the corpse way ahead of schedule.

Paula has stated that she must’ve been suffering from not postpartum depression at the time of her daughters deaths, but Postpartum Psychosis. The true answer is likely much simpler: The Sims, particularly Robert, had only wanted boys. After the birth of each daughter Paula had been forced to live in the basement; she’d been treated very poorly by Robert, and the marriage had suffered. Many believe wholeheartedly that Robert was just as guilty as Paula, that he’d helped plan and execute the murders. Others believe that while Robert was a complete bastard, he didn’t want the girls dead. Either way, Robert promptly divorced Paula after the conviction.

Back in 2015 Robert had been driving down the road with their only surviving child, 27 year old Randy, when a drunk driver hit them; both father and son were killed. Paula did seek clemency after this happened, citing mental illness; thankfully this request was shot down. Today she is still serving her sentence, completely childless.

A grown up Randy Sims before his death

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