St Paul Woman Who Buried Ex In Back Yard Sent To Prison
St Paul (KROC AM News) - A St Paul woman who murdered her ex-husband and buried his body in their backyard has been sentenced to 22 years in prison.
According to police reports, the couple's teenage daughter helped solve the crime.
Sentenced Tuesday was 40-year-old Karina Her.
Her pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree murder in February.
An autopsy found 50-year-old Kou Yang had been shot twice in the back of the head. The murder took place around July 1st last year. Officers did a welfare check at the couple’s home on July 22nd after being told Yang had not been seen for a few weeks. Her told officers she wasn’t sure where he was.
Their 17-year-old daughter told officers she suspected her mother had killed Yang and “and buried him in the garden.” She said she had discovered a fresh hole in the backyard that was covered by a tarp. The girl said her mother later “put bricks and concrete over the hole and erected a shed over where the hole had been.”
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The criminal complaint says about the same time a neighbor “noticed a bad smell coming from back in the corner by the garden” and that it “lasted for a solid week.”
The complaint says “When asked about the hole she dug in the backyard, Her said she was trying to repair the patio and had to remove a tree stump.” When asked about something that smelled really bad in her backyard “Her said there was a lot of pigeon poop from a coop they had.”
The victim’s body was found and removed from the site July 31st.
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