Authorities in Florida have sentenced a handyman to life in prison for killing a woman he was working for and then hiding her body in a septic tank.
Keoki Hilo Demich (34 years old) was sentenced to three consecutive life terms for the murder of Cynthia Cole on Tuesday (57), CBS 12 News reports.
Dimech was found guilty of first-degree murder, burglary of an occupied dwelling with assault or battery, sexual battery with great force, grand theft, and grand theft of a motor vehicle by a judge, according to Treasure Coast Newspapers.
Dimech was given a life sentence after pleading guilty to the charges in the court of Circuit Judge Sherwood Bauer. According to the outlet, the sentences will be read in order. He was sentenced to lesser time on the other charges.
According to CBS 12 News, after he pleaded guilty, prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty.
Dimech was working as a handyman for Cole when he attacked her after hiding in her shower and waiting for her to return home. He drowned her in the bathtub, then sexually abused him before submerging them both in a septic tank. According to the police officers.
Sheriff William Snyder stated that security footage from the night Demich vanished showed her leaving Cole’s car. WPTV reports that According to authorities, Cole and Demich had known each other for years. Dimech was her go-to handyman.
Cole’s body was found on March 5 in a septic tank four feet underground, officials said.
“I will never understand how you do this to someone who you call a second mother,” Cole’s daughter Ashley Bevensee said to Demich.
“It has broken our family and, after we lost our father nine years ago, if it ever happens, neither one will be there,” Bevensee said to the court, Treasure Coast Newspapers reported.