Parole Granted To Woman Who Got Teen Lover To Kill Husband

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A Pennsylvania woman convicted of murder for seducing a teenage neighbor into killing her husband at their vacation home in upstate New York has been granted parole after serving more than 26 years in state prison.

A New York parole board has ordered 54-year-old Laurie Kellogg released from prison by April 16. In its March 8 decision, the board cited Kellogg's good behavior in prison, her volunteer work as a teaching assistant and her "seemingly sincere remorse" for the 1991 crime.

Kellogg was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the death of 43-year-old Malcolm Kellogg, who was shot four times in the head while he slept in the couple's cottage on Cayuga Lake. Laurie Kellogg, who was 26 at the time, claimed he physically and verbally abused her and had sexually assaulted two of her teenage friends.

Her 18-year-old neighbor from suburban Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Denver McDowell, pleaded guilty to killing Kellogg. In his trial, he testified that he was on LSD at the time and that Kellogg became his lover to persuade him to kill her husband. He remains in prison serving a 25-years-to-life sentence.

On the night of the crime, Laurie Kellogg traveled to the cottage from her home in Pennsylvania with four teenagers, including McDowell. She claimed in court that she went there only to tell her husband she was leaving him.

At the time, the crime was compared to the case of Pamela Smart, a 22-year-old New Hampshire schoolteacher convicted in March 1991 of persuading her 17-year-old boyfriend to kill her husband.

The Kellogg case inspired a 1994 made-for-TV movie on ABC starring Jennie Garth and Gregory Harrison.