By The Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois officials have granted parole to an 80-year-old inmate sentenced to life in prison for the 1960 killings of three suburban Chicago women, whose brutalized bodies were found in a cave at a state park.

Chester Weger, left, is shown after he was convicted in the 1960 murder of Lillian Oetting at Starved Rock State Park, one of three women found murdered there on March 3, 1961. Edward Kitch / AP file

The Illinois Prisoner Review Board voted 9-4 Thursday to approve Chester Weger's 24th request for release.

Weger won’t be released for at least 90 days per a request from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. The Chicago Tribune reports that state officials want Weger evaluated under Illinois’ sexually violent persons law.

Weger has denied killing the three Riverside women, whose badly beaten bodies were found in March 1960 in a cave at Starved Rock State Park, near Utica.

Weger was 21 years old and worked as a dishwasher at the state park lodge. Jurors convicted him in 1961.