PHOENIX (AP) - A 39-year-old man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison in the presumed death of his girlfriend who was the subject of an unsuccessful search of a Phoenix landfill for her remains.
Robert Interval was sentenced Friday by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge on his April 16 conviction for second-degree murder in the case stemming from the 2017 disappearance of 34-year-old Christine Mustafa.
A 12-week landfill search by police failed to turn up her remains. Police said the search cost nearly $1.5 million.
Concerned family members and co-workers alerted police after Mustafa didn't show up for work.
Family and friends of Mustafa told investigators the couple had not been getting along and Mustafa was looking for ways to safely distance herself and their infant child from Interval.
