Truck driver gets life for killing runaway

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CHILLIWACK, British Columbia, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- A Canadian truck driver convicted of killing a teenage runaway was sent to prison Monday, joining his son, who was convicted of the same crime.

Justin Blue West of Victoria was given a sentence of 25 years to life, the same one his son, Dustin Moir, got in 2010, the Vancouver Sun reported. The sentencing came more than seven years after Chelsey Acorn's body was found in a shallow grave and more than five after the two men were arrested.

"Today marks the closing of a very painful chapter for the family and friends of Chelsey," Sgt. Jennifer Pound, a spokeswoman for the integrated homicide investigation team, said in a statement. "To see justice brought to those responsible for this grisly murder is a successful ending to a lengthy investigation."

Chelsey, 14, had run away from a foster home in Abbotsford. Months later, two hikers found her body in a shallow grave near the Coquihalla Highway outside Hope. Investigators said she had been strangled and her head beaten with a rock.