The western Iowa woman who was convicted of murder for shooting her abusive husband has lost the parental rights to her children. The Iowa Supreme Court has affirmed a juvenile court judge’s ruling that Dixie Shanahan-Duty of Defiance should lose custody of her three children.

Duty was sentenced to 50 years in prison after she was found guilty in 2004 of second-degree murder for the shotgun slaying of her abusive husband, Scott Shanahan, in August of 2002. Scott Shanahan?s body was left in a bedroom for more than 14 months while Duty and the children lived in the home.

Dixie Shanahan-Duty married Jeff Duty shortly before her conviction. Custody of the three children goes to one of Shanahan’s sisters in Texas.