photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

John William

A man convicted of murdering a Lawrence boy in 1988 was recently denied parole and will remain in prison for at least another seven years.

John William, 60, was convicted in the 1988 killing of a 9-year-old Lawrence boy, Richard Settlemyre, who was found along the Kansas River two days after he was last seen fishing with William. His head, hands and feet were severed from the body, and other wounds were discovered on the body, the Journal-World previously reported.

William was convicted of first-degree murder on Nov. 17, 1989, after a weeklong trial. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

William was eligible to be released from prison this summer, but was denied by the state’s prisoner review board after a hearing in June. Carol Pitts, a public information officer for the Department of Corrections, confirmed the review board’s decision on Monday, but declined to provide any additional information or comment on William’s case.

According to the state’s inmate registry, William is currently serving his sentence at a prison in El Dorado. He will next be eligible for parole on July 1, 2028, when he will be 67.

William was last eligible for parole in 2013. Jeremy Barclay, a department of corrections spokesman at the time, previously told the Journal-World the parole board denied parole because of the violence of the crime and the objections of the victim’s family. The parole board also reported that William had still denied responsibility for the murder.

In 2003, when William was first up for parole, the mother of the boy said she hoped he was never released from prison.

“I don’t think that (man) should ever get out,” Sue Ann Place said at the time.