MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa judge has sentenced a Colorado man to life in prison in the death of his estranged wife nearly two decades ago. The Hawk Eye newspaper reports District Judge Mark Kruse on Thursday sentenced 58-year-old Michael Syperda, of Rifle, Colorado, to the life term for the death of Elizabeth Syperda. She was 22 when she disappeared in July 2000 in Mount Pleasant, and her body was never found. Court records say the couple had been estranged before her disappearance because she was leaving him for a woman.

Michael Syperda declined to speak before he was sentenced. He showed no emotion when the judge handed down the mandatory life sentence in the Henry County courtroom. Despite the lack of a body, murder weapon or crime scene, Kruse says he based his guilty verdict on circumstantial evidence, including threats made by Syperda.