Killer battered girlfriend to death with homemade table, then dumped body ‘for the bears’
A murderer who killed his girlfriend with a homemade table before dumping her body ‘where only the bears would find her’ was jailed.
Patrick Nagel, 62, was jailed for 25 years Tuesday for the murder of Tika Young, 37, in Happy Jack, Arizona, earlier this year.
Nagel told police how he had used a handmade table to batter Tika to death while she was in bed.
In a shocking confession made after his arrest in April, he said that the furniture had fitted ‘real nice in the wood stove’ afterwards.
Explaining how he’d destroyed the murder weapon, Nagel added: ‘I threw it in there. Heated the house with it.’
After killing his girlfriend some time early in 2019, Nagel spent several weeks imitating Tika on social media to try and convince her family she was still alive.
They grew suspicious about why their intelligent and meticulous loved one was making spelling mistakes and bad grammar, and asked police to perform a welfare check.
The Big Bang Theory's Johnny Galecki, 44, welcomes first child with Alaina Meyer, 22Unbeknownst to them, Tika’s decomposing body had already been found in a nearby refuse disposal site, and had narrowly avoided being burnt.
Tika’s remains were eventually identified by a dog tag tattoo on her leg that she had inked as a tribute to her dad.
A motive for her murder has never been given, the Arizona Daily Sun reported.
Attacking Nagel at his sentencing, her niece Evelyn Young said: ‘Tika isn’t coming back because of you.
‘No more birthday parties with Tika dancing around.
‘No more Saturday mornings with Sami and Tika at grandma’s.
‘There is always a last time for everything, though.
‘The last time you go outside and play.
‘The last time you saw your high school teachers and the last time you tell someone you love them.
‘But why was Tika’s last breath with you?’