KLAMATH FALLS — The Oregon Board of Parole decided Wednesday to keep Mark Allen Reese behind bars.

The 57-year-old Reese raped and strangled Peggy Hilton, of Klamath Falls, in 1985 and was given back-to-back life sentences a year later. The sentences each carried a minimum of 10 years, both of which Reese has served.

Reese had been denied parole twice before, but this was the first time he approached the board with a positive psychiatric evaluation. A former jail nurse and District Attorney Ed Caleb of Klamath County led the effort to keep him locked up.