A 28-year-old man found guilty of murder in the death of his college girlfriend who was missing for months before her body was found in a shallow grave has been sentenced to life in prison.
The jury in Caldwell County on Tuesday also found Robert Fabian guilty of tampering with evidence in the death of 22-year-old Zuzu Verk.
On Wednesday afternoon, he was sentenced to life behind bars on the murder charge and another 20 years for tampering with physical evidence by concealing her corpse, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Verk, from the North Texas city of Keller, was a student at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, in West Texas, and dating Fabian at the time of her disappearance in October 2016.
Her remains were found the following February and identified through dental records. Verk was reported missing in Oct. 12, 2016 by her boyfriend, Fabian, and her body was found in Feb. 2017.
Neighbors said they heard the couple arguing the night before she was reported missing. Fabian told police he and Verk got into a "heated" argument about one of his ex-girlfriends on Oct. 11.
He told police she left his apartment, but she was never seen again. Fabian was initially charged with tampering with or fabricating evidence by concealing a human corpse.
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She was laid to rest in Keller in March 2017. Fabian used his friend’s credit card to buy clothes at a Dollar General, which matched the material Verk’s body was wrapped in, according to the arrest affidavit.[[398285151,C]]
The sentencing phase of Fabian's trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday.
A judge previously ordered that Fabian's trial be held in Caldwell County, south of Austin.
