(AP) The Michigan Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling ending the parental rights of a woman in prison for murdering her 7-year-old adopted son.

Lisa Holland, 34, is serving a life sentence in the death of Ricky Holland of Williamston. The boy's decomposed body was pulled from an icy marsh 11 months after he disappeared from his home in July 2005. His father, Tim Holland, led police to the spot. He said Lisa Holland struck Ricky in the head with a hammer and he later dumped the body in the rural game area.

The three-member Court of Appeals, in an opinion released Friday, said Ingham County Family Judge Janelle Lawless was correct to take away Lisa Holland's parental rights to four other children. The children were living with Tim Holland's family and were to be available for adoption.

Three of the children — two boys and a girl, all under 6 years old — were Ricky's biological siblings and had been adopted by Lisa and Tim Holland. The other daughter was born to the Hollands the year before Ricky died.

Tim Holland, 38, pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder and was sentenced to between 30 and 60 years. He voluntarily gave up his parental rights last December.

Lisa Holland had argued that the court didn't need to end her parental rights because she'd arranged for her sister to care for the children during her imprisonment. Her attorney has said that, if she successfully appeals her conviction, Lisa Holland could care for the children in the future.

But the Court of Appeals said that the evidence showed that she had failed to provide proper care and custody for the children "by causing them extreme distress by murdering their sibling."

"The neglect and physical abuse inflicted upon Ricky was indicative of the neglect and abuse the other children would experience if returned to respondent's care," the court continued. "There was no evidence that terminating respondent's parental rights was clearly contrary to the children's best interests."

The matter was decided by Court of Appeals judges E. Thomas Fitzgerald, David Sawyer and Peter O'Connell.