3rd-degree murder plea in 1999 slaying

3rd-degree murder plea in 1999 slaying

HUNTINGDON, Pa. (AP) — A man has pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the death of his daughter-in-law almost a decade and a half ago.

Sixty-six-year-old Kenneth Leighty of Altoona entered the plea Thursday in Huntingdon County in the 1999 slaying of 23-year-old Sherry Leighty.

District Attorney George Zanic told The (Altoona) Mirror that prosecutors had agreed to recommend a term of seven to 14 years when the defendant is sentenced in February. He said Leighty wouldn’t have served a day in jail without the deal to locate the victim’s remains last spring.

Her husband told investigators that he originally thought she may have run off to Maine with another man. He said he began to doubt that when she didn’t contact their children in subsequent weeks, months and years.