(AP)—A southwestern Indiana man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison on charges related to the disappearance of a 19-year-old disabled woman who was found dead last year.
Twenty-five-year-old Terrence Roach was sentenced Wednesday. A Vanderburgh County jury convicted him in May of criminal confinement and abuse of a corpse, but acquitted him of murder and kidnapping charges in Aleah Beckerle’s death.
Beckerle disappeared from her home in July 2016. Her decomposing remains were found in March 2017 in a vacant Evansville home next to Roach’s residence.
The Evansville Courier & Press reports Evansville police said Roach was arrested after confessing to abducting and killing Beckerle.
Relatives said Beckerle was mostly nonverbal and needed daily care, medication and a wheelchair.
Police say they don’t plan on reopening the case to look for other suspects unless new information comes to light in Beckerle’s death.
Terrance Wayne Roach