Judith Ann Neelley tortured and murdered 13-year-old Lisa Ann Millican in DeKalb County in 1982.
Notorious North Alabama child murderer Judith Ann Neelley has been denied parole.
This is the second time she has been up for parole, and after almost three minutes of consideration on Thursday, the three-member board voted against Neelley's parole in the death of 13-year-old Lisa Ann Millican. The family, friends, and a former teacher who attended were relieved.
Those who got up to testify against the parole used the word monster to describe Neelley. Tina Millican, Lisa's sister, agrees and says she will be back when Neelley is up for parole again.
"We do not want this monster back out. And that's the only way to define her. She is a monster; no matter how many lies she tells, she has not changed."
DeKalb County District Attorney Summer Summerford says she grew up there, the same county where Neelley killed Lisa. She said Neelley is what goes bump in the night for kids in the area.
"You know children are often scared of various things; you have a monster in the closet, monster under the bed - a monster had a name in northeast Alabama, and that was Judith Ann Neelley. People who even came along after these events happened have heard that name and associate it with evil," Summerford said.
Neelley and her now-deceased husband, Alvin, abducted Lisa in 1982 from a mall in Rome, Georgia. They took her to a Scottsboro motel where Alvin repeatedly raped and tortured her. Days later, Neelley took Lisa to Little River Canyon, where she injected her with drain cleaner before shooting her and dumping her body in the canyon.
A judge sentenced Neelley to death in 1983, but former Alabama Gov. Fob James commuted her sentence to life. Now every five years, Neeley will have a shot at parole, and her next hearing will be in May of 2028.
