District Attorney Jim Farrell announced that Lars Ryder, age 23, of Monticello, N.Y. was sentenced to 25 years in state prison and 5 years of post release supervision for the homicide of Elizabeth Mucci, 31, of Monticello and Hankins, N.Y.

Ryder had previously entered a plea of guilty to Manslaughter in the 1st Degree, a class B violent felony, in Sullivan County Court on April 27, 2012. Farrell, said that Ryder killed his girlfriend of nearly two years, Elizabeth Mucci, 31, of Monticello and Hankins, N.Y., on the evening of April 26, 2011, at the apartment they shared on Fraser Road in the Town of Thompson after a physical domestic dispute between them.

After the homicide Ryder attempted to conceal the homicide by putting Mucci’s body in the woods and then trying to burn it. After that did not succeed, Ryder returned to the woods, the next day, and dismembered Mucci’s body in order to hide it.

Police only recovered one of Mucci’s legs and no cause of death was ever forensically established. Ryder admitted to acting under an extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the homicide which reduced the murder to manslaughter. Ryder was arrested on May 13, 2011, after an investigation by the New York State Police into the disappearance of Mucci.

“The New York State Police and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation worked hard to find out what happened to Elizabeth when she disappeared and searched miles of property in an attempt to find her body. Their investigation was thorough and resulted in the truth being revealed and Ryder being held responsible. While no sentence will replace the loss of this young woman to her family, who grieve her loss, the 25 year state prison sentence, is consistent with justice and all the facts discovered by the police investigation. In addition, Elizabeth’s family, who knew Ryder and his family for nearly three decades, were in agreement with the plea and that was a significant factor in both my office and the court agreeing to the 25 year state prison sentence in this case”, Farrell said.