Michigan woman, 75 year old , sent to prison for granddaughter’s death

FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A  Michigan woman was sentenced to at least nine years in prison Friday for the 1998 death of her granddaughter, whose remains have never been found.

 Lois Janish of Flint pleaded no contest to 2nd degree murder in September. Lois  told police that she beat her granddaughter with a hammer and scattered her remains with help from a boyfriend, but Lois recanted that story and others.

Coral Hall, 14 year old, disappeared in 1998 after using a pay phone near a Flint tavern.

“I had hoped she would lead us to the body but that did not happen,” Genesee County prosecutor David Leyton said.

Judge Farah acknowledged the sentence was below the guidelines. But he said it’d have been a tough trial for prosecutors.

“It isn’t only tragic, it is ugly how this poor girl had to have her life ended in the most violent of fashions for no reason whatsoever,” Farah said.

Lois Janish’s release from prison will be up to the Michigan parole board. She will be eligible after serving 9 years in custody, including more than 2 years spent in jail since she was charged in 2013.

Detective Sgt. Greg Hosmer told The Flint Journal that he will continue to search for Hall’s remains.

“It may be over for her,” he said of Janish, “but I am still looking.”