PHOENIX (AP) - A 53-year-old man has been sentenced for strangling a teenage girl and leaving her body in the Phoenix desert more than 30 years ago.
A judge Friday sentenced Patrick Ryon to 18 years in prison.
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery says the sentence comes after Ryon pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in October.
Prosecutors say 19-year-old Alison Mims disappeared Dec. 23, 1980 after giving Ryon a ride home from a wedding in Glendale.
The vehicle Mims was driving was found several months later.
According to police, Ryon confessed in 1986 to killing a woman in Phoenix but later recanted.
In 2010, a partial skull found near I-17 and Carefree Highway was identified as Mims.
Authorities apprehended Ryon in New Mexico for first-degree murder and attempted sexual assault.
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