Luc Tieman, center, and his lawyer Stephen Smith, left, listen inside a courtroom where Tieman was sentenced to 55 years, Friday, May 11, 2018, in Somerset County Superior Court in Skowhegan, Maine. (AP)
An Army veteran, who served three tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, was sentenced to 55 years in prison Friday for the murder of his wife, whom he also admitted to burying behind his parents’ home.
Luc Tieman was convicted last month in the August 2016 murder of his 34-year-old wife, Valerie Tieman, who he says died of a heroin overdose. Results from the autopsy report revealed the cause of death as two gunshot wounds.
Investigators said that Tieman originally told them that his wife disappeared at a Walmart. He later changed his story and said that she died of an overdose. The autopsy confirmed that she had ingested painkillers, but that this was not the official cause of death.
Prosecutors alleged that the Army vet killed his wife so he could be with another woman he'd met online. They said that after her death, Tieman moved in with the woman and never reported Valerie missing. It was only on Sept. 9, 2016, that she was reported missing by her parents.
Valerie Tieman was found in a shallow grave, wrapped in a blanket, buried alongside a wedding band, flowers, a bag of potato chips, a note and a bottle of Gucci cologne, ironically named "Guilty."
Tieman admitted to burying his wife but offered no explanation for the items found in her grave.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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