Madison County Jail

David Kaneko must serve at least six months of a four-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter.

REXBURG -- Rexburg resident Kenichi David Kaneko has been sentenced to four years in prison for two counts of involuntary manslaughter.

But 7th District Judge Richard St. Clair says Kaneko could be released after spending just six months in a mental health facility if his evaluations are satisfactory.

Authorities conducting a welfare check in 2004 found the partially mummified bodies of Kaneko's 33-year-old daughter Laura and his wife Lorraine in their small mobile home. Investigators determined that Laura had died in 2001 and Lorraine had died in 2003.

The two women apparently believed that God told them Laura was to marry an apostle, but they first had to go through a cleansing ritual. The women began restricting their diets and an autopsy showed that starvation was at least partially the cause of their deaths.

Authorities brought charges against Kaneko, claiming he should have intervened in the plan and gotten help for his mentally ill wife and daughter.

Kaneko has said that he didn't intervene because he thought it would show a lack of faith.