An Illinois judge has ordered a convicted murderer to serve nearly one century behind bars for the gruesome murder and dismemberment of a woman in 2018.
Gary Berchtold was sentenced to 95 years in jail for tying up 38-year-old Tiffini Murphy to a chair and shooting her six times before dismembering her body after she lived at his house for three weeks.
Prosecutors said that the 41-year-old then started a four-day-long bonfire which he used to burn the victim’s remains before dumping what was left in a neighbor’s yard.
“You must be the devil for what you did to my girl,” Kelly Murphy, the victim’s mom told the killer in court. “I pity your soul.”
“I want to tell you my heart is broken. My soul is scarred forever. My girl Tiffini was a beautiful woman. She didn’t deserve what you did. She was a wonderful person. You took so much away from her family.”
Berchtold admitted to setting Murphy’s body parts on fire. Prosecutors played a recording of a phone call he made from jail, suggesting he felt no remorse for the crime.
