Allegan County -- Forty years after he killed two girls, Theodore Glenn Williams -- held under a defunct sexual-psychopath law -- will remain confined in a psychiatric hospital.

A federal appeals court panel has determined Williams still is dangerous with "an additional mental abnormality that creates a likelihood of future violent conduct."

For years, Williams, 68, formerly of Wyoming, has unsuccessfully petitioned courts for his release. As one of only two inmates still held under the old psychopath law, he argued his continued confinement violated equal-protection and due-process clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

But the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that provisions of the repealed law applied: A person in custody "shall be discharged only after there are reasonable grounds to believe that such person has recovered from such psychopathy to a degree that he will not be a menace to others."

Forty years ago, Williams was a monster.

Sonya Santa Cruz, 7, disappeared in 1967 as she walked home from Stocking Elementary School in Grand Rapids. She was missing for weeks before horseback riders found her body in a shallow grave outside Wayland.

Williams, a family friend, consoled the girl's mother and helped baby-sit her other children while she searched for her daughter.

Williams' own oversight led to his undoing. A house painter, he inadvertently buried his estimate book with Sonya's school papers.

He asked police what took them so long, then confessed. He stunned investigators with another admission: He raped and killed 13-year-old Laura Jo Sutliffe, too. He kidnapped the Sparta girl in 1966 from in front of her house at knifepoint. He led police to her body in Newaygo County.

Williams pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Allegan County Circuit Court to the younger girl's killing. But before sentencing, he was designated a criminal-sexual psychopath and committed indefinitely to Ionia State Hospital. The law required he be held until he no longer was a menace.

The psychopath statute was repealed in 1968. Williams stayed confined until 1973, when he and 1,200 others were freed. He was out three months before Allegan County prosecutors charged him again. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a life sentence. The state Supreme Court, however, tossed the conviction, and ordered his confinement under the psychopath statute.

The Newaygo County case never went to trial. The charges were quietly dismissed after former Prosecutor Douglas Springstead left office.

In an earlier interview with The Press, from the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ypsilanti, Williams said: "I'm a different person than I was 40 years ago."

His attorney argued he should be freed under the old statute, or current Mental Health Code.

But the appeals panel wrote Williams should be treated differently than those found not guilty by reason of insanity because he was convicted of murder.

"(I)t is clear that Michigan has a rational basis for treating Williams differently from insanity acquitees. An insanity acquittee has not been convicted, and consequently, may not be punished. Williams, however, was convicted of first-degree murder, making him eligible for whatever punishment is authorized by statute."

Defense attorney John Shea, who couldn't be reached, has said the nature of the crimes killed chances for a successful review.

Authorities fear even an elderly Williams posed a danger. He acknowledged in the interview he posed a risk, however slight.

"Nobody can guarantee what happens tomorrow," he said.

It was uncertain if Williams would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. He can annually seek release from Allegan County Circuit Court, but Judge George Corsiglia's rejections of previous attempts led Williams to give up in the mid-1990s.

Prosecutor Fred Anderson said his office would challenge any effort to release Williams.

"In legal terms, he has to be 'not a menace to others,' and (doctors) determined he is a menace to others," he said.