MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — A Nicaraguan man who confessed to killing a Wyoming woman on a missionary trip has been sentenced to 39 years in prison.

A judge on Saturday issued the order against Fernando Aburto Reyes, who was found guilty of killing, raping and robbing Karen Colclough. Under Nicaraguan law, he can remain imprisoned for up to 30 years.

Colclough disappeared in April after she left her church group to take photos while staying at a hotel on Montelimar beach, about 30 miles southwest of Managua. An autopsy found she had been beaten and strangled.

The 37-year-old resident of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and members of her church had been in Nicaragua to help families in villages in the central province of Matagalpa. She originally was from Lynnfield, Massachusetts.

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