Indictment in '74 Child Murder

A former Sparks woman has been indicted on a murder charge resulting from the child abuse death of her adopted son nearly 32 years ago.

66-year-old Catherine Wyman is accused of beating to death James "J-W" Bader, who was either three or four when he died in August of 1974.

The former Catherine Bader was living in a Phoenix suburb with her husband, James Wyman, when she was arrested last month on a warrant charging her with her son's death.

The murder indictment accuses Wyman of kicking or striking J-W so severely that his intestines ruptured, causing a fatal infection. She also was indicted on one count of child abuse.

The case was re-examined after the boy's sister, Julie Dunn, of Chico, California, told Sparks police last year that her mother abused the boy.