CHESTER, Ill. (AP) – A southern Illinois judge has ruled that family members can exhume the bodies of a murdered woman and her children and rebury them in Chicago.

Randolph County Judge Richard Brown ruled Monday in favor of the family of Sheri Coleman. Coleman and her sons, ages 11 and 9, were found strangled in May 2009. Husband and father Christopher Coleman was convicted and is serving a life sentence in the killings.

The Belleville News-Democrat reports Brown called the case “a sad tragedy for all involved.” The judge said Sheri Coleman’s mother, Angela DiCiccio and brother Mario DiCiccio had “waited long enough.” The family asked more than a year ago to exhume the bodies from a Chester cemetery and move them to Chicago.

Christopher Coleman’s parents wanted the graves left undisturbed.

© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.