According to court documents, an Indiana man was sentenced to 57 years in prison on Monday for the murder of his 17-year-old neighbor. The girl was reported missing for more than five months before her body was discovered buried in his backyard the previous year.
Patrick Scott, 59, must also give the victim’s family $10,000 in reparation as part of the plea deal.
According to a criminal homicide report from investigators, Scott had been charged with murder in November after he had admitted to killing Valerie Tindall by strangling her with a belt during an argument in his house in June. Tindall allegedly worked for Scott, a lawn-mowing company owner, according to the authorities.
Scott entered into a plea agreement in January that resulted in the dismissal of charges related to obstruction of justice and providing false information to law enforcement. On Monday, the judge accepted the plea and approved the sentence.
Late in November, Tindall’s remains were found in a box in Scott’s garden. According to officials, he admitted to detectives from the Rush County Sheriff’s Office that he had strangled Tindall on June 7.
The report also stated that Scott claimed to have made a box the next day and placed Tindall’s body inside it after taping and covering it with black plastic.
Detectives were able to identify the girl thanks to orange fingernail polish, which is the color that Tindall was last spotted wearing on a June 7 social media post.
