West Virginia Woman Sentenced For Murdering Boyfriend, Then Marrying Her Dad

A West Virginia woman was sentenced to decades in prison for killing her boyfriend in what prosecutors described as a plot devised by her and her father so that the two could get married.

Amanda McClure, 31, was sentenced Thursday to 40 years in prison for the murder of 38-year-old John McGuire, local outlet WOAY reports. McClure was accused of having worked with her father, 55-year-old Larry Paul McClure Sr., and her sister, 32-year-old Anna Marie Choudhray, to murder McGuire in February 2019. The trio are believed to have first struck him in the head before injecting him with methamphetamine and strangling him. 

Amanda and Larry McClure then had sex and got married four weeks later, even though it's illegal for a father and daughter to wed in West Virginia.

Amanda, who pleaded guilty in July to second-degree murder, appeared in McDowell County Circuit Court on Thursday via a Skype call, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports. During Thursday's hearing, Amanda apologized to the victim's family, as well as her own.

“I have to look at myself every day. My family didn’t raise me to be this way. I’ve not only hurt John’s family, I’ve hurt my own family,” she said.

Amanda was not raised by her biological father, from whom she was previously estranged, but by her adoptive parents,  Allen and Gwen Holm.

In the days before the murder, Larry, Amanda, Choudhary, and McGuire were all spending time together in a house in Skygusty where Larry, who'd recently been released from prison after serving time for sex-related crimes, was living, according to the Daily Telegraph. After more than a week passed, Larry and his daughters came up with a plan to kill McGuire. They began torturing him on Thursday, February 14. He did not die until later, following what Larry described as "two to three days of hell."

“A black garbage bag was wrapped around his head by Amanda. Anna strangled him … I held him,” he said, according to the outlet.

They then buried him in a shallow grave behind the house before digging him up around six days later, dismembering him, stabbing him with stakes, and burying him again.

Amanda suggested that McGuire was killed due to her dad's jealousy, remarking during Thursday's hearing that "[her] dad didn’t want anyone else near [her]," according to the Daily Telegraph.

McGuire's remains were found in the Skygusty area in September, more than six months after he was killed, WOAY reports. Soon after, the two sisters were arrested for the alleged concealment of a deceased human body while McClure Sr. was arrested on an unrelated charge of failing to register as a sex offender. Those charges were later upgraded for all involved: McClure Sr. pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison in August, according to WOAY. Choudhry, meanwhile, is also facing a first-degree murder charge, but is awaiting trial.

During Thursday's hearing, the victim's mother, Karen Smith, said that she doesn't understand why her son was killed, the Daily Telegraph reports.

“I just really want to know why she thought she could be God and take my kid,” she said. ‘She broke my heart and my grandkids’ hearts. They cry every night for their daddy.”