A Missouri woman convicted of raping and sodomizing two girls and holding them under water to force their compliance has been sentenced to 90 years in prison, court documents show.
Melinda S. Tillitt, 39, of Shelbina, Missouri was arrested for sexually molesting two young girls under 14 years of age starting in 2007, Fox 4 in Kansas City reports.
During her trial, prosecutors found Tillitt had engaged in “a variety of deviate sexual intercourse, at times holding the children under water to compel compliance.”
Police became involved when the two girls finally confided about their ordeal to a church member in 2015. She was arrested at her home on March 14, 2015 at the request of the Shelbina Police Department.
“The long sentence gives them a measure of security that they will not be hurt by her again,” Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said in a statement.
The woman was sentenced to 15 years each for five counts of statutory sodomy and one count of child molestation. Each sentence is to be served consecutively.
Tillitt’s husband, Kevin, has also been charged with raping the children and will go to trial in September of 2017.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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