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Uncle of Slain 5-Year-Old Lizzy Shelley Gets Life in Prison Without Parole

Alex Whipple told police where the child’s body was once authorities said they would not consider the death penalty.

The uncle of slain Utah 5-year-old Lizzy Shelley was sentenced to life in prison without parole after he pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, kidnapping, and rape of a child last month. According to Cache Valley Daily, 22-year-old Alex Whipple didn’t show much emotion upon hearing his sentence on Tuesday afternoon. “Mr. Whipple, the time has come for you to begin to pay what you did... You will never see the light of day. You will never breathe free air again,” Judge Kevin Allen told Whipple. “What you did was so abhorrent and vile that you must spend the rest of your life in prison, away from the victims, and away from this community that you unspeakably terrorized.”

Whipple was arrested in May after Lizzy’s family reported her missing. He was believed to have been with the child and was later located by police with blood matching Lizzy’s on his clothes. Days later, he told police where her body was once they agreed to not consider the death penalty. Medical examiners determined that Lizzy was raped, sodomized, slashed at the neck, and stabbed in the chest by Whipple.