DNA Clears Woman of Elderly Sisters' Deaths

Prosecutors have decided to drop charges against a Wisconsin woman, who spent 10 years in prison after being convicted of the 1991 murders of two elderly sisters, after new DNA evidence tests showed that blood found at the crime scene did not match Beth LaBatte. Earlier, a new trial was ordered for LaBatte after preliminary DNA testing did not match hers. After subsequent testing, prosecutors decided not to proceed with the second trial.

LaBatte, 39, was arrested in 1996 and convicted a year later of two counts of homicide and two counts of armed robbery in connection with the Nov. 16, 1991 beating deaths of Cecilia Cadigan, 85, and her sister Ann Cadigan, 90 at their home in Casco, a town of about 600 residents 20 miles east of Green Bay.

The two victims, known in their small community as "the girls," were retired school teachers who had never married.

The Innocence Project

LaBatte, who was 21 years old at the time of the murders and heavily into drugs and alcohol, was convicted in 1997 and sentenced to life in prison. She allegedly confessed to the murders to a cellmate, prosecutors said.

New DNA tests in the case were ordered after the University of Wisconsin Law School's Innocence Project became involved in LaBette's case. After preliminary tests pointed to a different suspect and a new trial was ordered, LaBatte was freed on bond.

"This will always be over my head," LaBatte told reporters. "It won't be over until whoever murdered these women are caught."

LaBatte's boyfriend, Charles Benoit, also was charged in the slayings, but found not guilty in a 1998 trial.