Dying Former 'Manson Family' Member Up for Parole

(CNN) -- A former "Manson family" member who stabbed actress Sharon Tate to death more than 40 years ago and is now terminally ill faces her 13th parole hearing on Wednesday.

Susan Atkins, 61, has terminal brain cancer. As of earlier this year, she was paralyzed over 85 percent of her body and could not sit up in bed or be moved into a wheelchair, according to a Web site maintained by her husband and attorney, James Whitehouse.

However, despite her declining health and an impressive prison record, Whitehouse wrote, "there is still a very real chance the Parole Board will nonetheless insist her release would be a danger to society."

The hearing will be held at the Central California Women's Facility at Chowchilla, California, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Atkins was moved to the Chowchilla facility from the California Institution for Women at Frontera last year because of her illness.

"Last we heard, she is expected to attend," Thornton said Tuesday of Atkins. The proceeding is scheduled to be held in a hearing room, but depending on Atkins' condition, it could be held at her bedside, Thornton said. The panel is expected to render its decision following the hearing after deliberating behind closed doors, she said.

Atkins -- California's longest-serving female inmate -- has been denied parole 12 times previously, Thornton said.

She was 21 when she and other followers of Charles Manson participated in a two-night rampage that left seven people dead and terrorized the city of Los Angeles in August 1969. She and the others -- Manson, Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and Charles "Tex" Watson -- were initially sentenced to death in the slayings of five people, including Tate, and two additional deaths the following night.

Their sentences were automatically commuted to life in prison when the Supreme Court struck down the nation's death penalty laws in 1972.

By her own admission, Atkins held Tate down as she pleaded for mercy, and stabbed the actress, who was eight months pregnant, 16 times. In a 1993 parole board hearing, Atkins said Tate "asked me to let her baby live. ... I told her I didn't have any mercy on her."

After killing Tate, according to historical accounts of the murders, Atkins scrawled the word "pig" in blood on the door of the home Tate shared with her husband, director Roman Polanski. Polanski was not home at the time, but three of Tate's houseguests were also slain by the killers, as was a teenager who was visiting the home's caretaker in his nearby cottage.

If the panel decides to grant Atkins parole -- called a "tentative suitability finding" -- the decision is subject to a 120-day review process by the California Board of Parole Hearings, Thornton said. If it still stands, the matter then goes to the governor's office. The governor's options include allowing the decision to stand, actively approving it, modifying it or reversing it, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's Web site.

However, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has previously opposed Atkins' request for compassionate release -- a request made by terminally ill patients wishing to be released before death. The Board of Parole Hearings unanimously denied that request in July 2008. It was also opposed by Debra Tate, Sharon Tate's sister.

If parole is not granted, another hearing will be set in three, five, seven, 10 or 15 years, at the discretion of the panel, Thornton said.

Atkins has been described as a model prisoner who has accepted responsibility for her role in the slayings and now shuns Manson.

But Debra Tate told CNN in an e-mail in March she does not believe any Manson family member convicted of murder should ever be set free, saying the slayings were "so vicious, so inhumane, so depraved, that there is no turning back."

By her own admission, Atkins held Tate down as she pleaded for mercy, and stabbed the actress, who was eight months pregnant, 16 times. In a 1993 parole board hearing, Atkins said Tate "asked me to let her baby live. ... I told her I didn't have any mercy on her."

After killing Tate, according to historical accounts of the murders, Atkins scrawled the word "pig" in blood on the door of the home Tate shared with her husband, director Roman Polanski. Polanski was not home at the time, but three of Tate's houseguests were also slain by the killers, as was a teenager who was visiting the home's caretaker in his nearby cottage.

If the panel decides to grant Atkins parole -- called a "tentative suitability finding" -- the decision is subject to a 120-day review process by the California Board of Parole Hearings, Thornton said. If it still stands, the matter then goes to the governor's office. The governor's options include allowing the decision to stand, actively approving it, modifying it or reversing it, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's Web site.

However, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has previously opposed Atkins' request for compassionate release -- a request made by terminally ill patients wishing to be released before death. The Board of Parole Hearings unanimously denied that request in July 2008. It was also opposed by Debra Tate, Sharon Tate's sister.

If parole is not granted, another hearing will be set in three, five, seven, 10 or 15 years, at the discretion of the panel, Thornton said.

Atkins has been described as a model prisoner who has accepted responsibility for her role in the slayings and now shuns Manson.

But Debra Tate told CNN in an e-mail in March she does not believe any Manson family member convicted of murder should ever be set free, saying the slayings were "so vicious, so inhumane, so depraved, that there is no turning back."

"The 'Manson Family' murderers are sociopaths, and from that, they can never be rehabilitated," Debra Tate said. "They should all stay right where they are -- in prison -- until they die. There will never be true justice for my sister Sharon and the other victims of the 'Manson Family.' Keeping the murderers in prison is the least we, as a society who values justice, can do."

In a manuscript posted on her Web site, Atkins, who was known within the Manson family as Sadie Mae Glutz, wrote that "this is the past I have to live with, and I have to live with it every day."

"Unlike the reader, or the people who seem to think Charles Manson was cool, I can't think about it for an hour or so and then go on with my life. Just like the families and friends of the victims, this is with me every day. I have to wake up every day with this and no matter what I do for the rest of my life and no matter how much I give back to the community I will never be able to replace what my crime took away. And that's not 'neat,' and that's not 'cool.'"

Atkins' brain cancer was diagnosed in March 2008, Whitehouse wrote on his Web site. On May 15, doctors predicted she would live less than six months. But she passed that deadline, he wrote, and celebrated her 21st wedding anniversary on December 7.

24 Year Old Man Stood Up At His Wake

Oklahoma Pastor Was Found Nude, Stabbed Behind Altar, Source Says

(CNN) -- A 61-year-old pastor who was killed in a rural Oklahoma church was found lying behind the altar with her arms outstretched, a source close to the investigation told CNN.

It was one of the latest details to emerge in the killing of Carol Daniels, whose nude body was found in the Christ Holy Sanctified Church in Anadarko, Oklahoma, in a crime scene the district attorney described as "horrific."

Her clothes were taken from the scene, and a dissolving agent had been sprayed around her body, the source said.

An FBI profiler was brought in during the weekend to assist investigators, Steve Neuman, a spokesman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said Monday. Authorities also have increased to $15,000 a reward for information.

Daniels, from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was found inside the church August 23. She died from "multiple sharp-force injuries," according to a preliminary autopsy report obtained by CNN. Sharp-force injuries mean cuts or stab wounds.

Diagrams in the autopsy notes show Daniels suffered injuries to the side and back of her neck, her back and her left breast. She also suffered wounds to her hands, a typical spot for defensive wounds resulting from attempts to ward off an attack.

In addition, the autopsy notes say a portion of Daniels' hair appeared singed or burned. The medical examiner classified her death as a homicide.

Daniels' son, Alvin Daniels, told CNN that she traveled many Sundays to Anadarko, about 50 miles southwest of her home, to the church "in case people came to worship."

District Attorney Bret Burns has called the crime scene the worst he'd seen in 17 years as a prosecutor but gave no further explanation. Jessica Brown, a spokeswoman for Oklahoma's State Bureau of Investigation, said last week the body was "staged" after the killing, but declined to elaborate.

Meanwhile, Neuman said, video surveillance from a convenience store near the church is being analyzed, a process that started Friday. He declined to comment on the condition of Daniels' body when found.

Alvin Daniels told HLN's "Nancy Grace" that his mother was "always joking with us and always taking care of us, even giving her last dollar, even if she didn't have it."

He said she took precautions at the church. "She was very cautious for the most part, and she would usually leave the door open in case people came to worship," he said.

The death has unnerved religious leaders in Anadarko, said Ted Mercer, pastor of Grace Christian Fellowship, which is about three blocks from the church were Daniels' body was found.

California Police Take New Look at 1980s Missing Girl Cases

ANTIOCH, CA (CNN) -- Authorities in two San Francisco Bay-area cities are investigating whether disappearances dating back to the late 1980s could be connected to Phillip Garrido, the man suspected of keeping Jaycee Dugard captive behind his house for 18 years.

Police in Hayward, California, about 20 miles south of Oakland, say they are investigating whether he is connected to the disappearance of Michaela Garecht, last seen in 1988 at age 9.

Hayward Police Lt. Chris Orrey said there are similarities between Garecht's disappearance and Dugard's. They are similar in age and appearance, both were abducted in daylight and a sketch of a suspect resembles Garrido, she said.

Orrey said there were differences, as well, though she would not elaborate. She said Hayward police have been in contact with Garecht's family and witnesses since Dugard was found alive last week.

And in Dublin, California, about 25 miles east of Oakland, police are looking into whether Garrido is connected to the 1989 disappearance of Ilene Misheloff. Ilene was 13 when she was abducted, investigators said.

Investigators announced Saturday that they were looking into whether Garrido may have been behind other unsolved crimes.

Contra Costa County Sheriff's Lt. Steve Simpkins said police in Antioch and neighboring Pittsburg were searching Garrido's property "for evidence relating to open cases."

Authorities brought cadaver dogs to search the property next door to the Garridos as they tried to determine whether Garrido was connected to a string of unsolved slayings of prostitutes in the 1990s. Several of the women's bodies were dumped near a park where Garrido worked at the time.

"What we also know is that Phillip Garrido had access to that property," said Jimmie Lee, spokesman for the Contra Costa Sheriff's Department. "He used that property, and it looks like he lived on that property in a shed."

A bone fragment was found on the neighbor's property in an area that Garrido had access to, authorities said.

"It was a small bone fragment," said Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department. "We don't know if it's human or animal, and we're going to take it back for further testing and analysis."

Garrido kidnapped Dugard 18 years ago in South Lake Tahoe, California, fathered two daughters with her and held her captive in a well-hidden backyard compound, authorities said.

Dugard's real identity was discovered last week and her alleged kidnappers -- Garrido, a registered sex offender, and his 55-year-old wife, Nancy -- were arrested. They face 29 felony charges, including rape and kidnapping, and both have pleaded not guilty.

Meanwhile, Dugard and her mother and daughters have moved to an undisclosed location as they try to get reacquainted, said Carl Probyn, Dugard's stepfather. A team of psychologists and several law enforcement officers are with them, he said.

Probyn, who watched helplessly as his stepdaughter was kidnapped near their home in 1991, observes at arm's length as Dugard reunites with her mother. He has not seen or spoken to her, but he said family members told him Dugard looked well.

"She's with a group and they're taking care of her and they're getting adjusted. And my wife and daughter are up there. And it's going real slow. I mean, I don't need to be involved in this and disrupt anything," he told CNN's Larry King on Monday.

Probyn, who is separated from Dugard's mother, said Dugard's personality will help her deal with the years of trauma.

"I know Jaycee very well. She's a mellow person. She was just a sweet kid. She never got mad. She doesn't -- she's not angry, you know. ... That's why she's alive," he said.