KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ A Kansas City, Kan., woman was sentenced Monday to life in prison for the killing of her 7-year-old stepson in a case that shocked even veteran law officers.
Heather Jones, 30, pleaded guilty in Wyandotte County District Court last month to a charge of first-degree murder in the death of Adrian Jones.
The boy's remains were found last year, and authorities said it appeared he had been fed to pigs on property rented by Jones and her husband.
Jones will have to serve 25 years of the life sentence before she can be considered for parole.
She was also sentenced Monday to 5 { years in prison for two counts of child abuse.
District Judge Mike Grosko ordered the sentences to run consecutively.
Heather Jones' husband, 45-year-old Michael A. Jones, is also charged in the case and is awaiting trial.
According to Wyandotte County prosecutors, the little boy had been the victim of "chronic confinement and abuse" before his death.
Court documents say Adrian was abused over a period of several months beginning in May 2015.
The documents say he was killed sometime between Sept. 18 and Oct. 4 last year.
The boy's remains were found last November.
Police were initially called to the home the day before Thanksgiving on a domestic disturbance call.
Michael Jones was arrested and later charged with aggravated battery and aggravated assault in connection with that disturbance.
But while on the scene investigating that incident, police learned that the boy had not been seen for several months and may have been killed.
On Thanksgiving Day, police served a search warrant on the property and found human remains in a barn.
The remains were later identified as Adrian's after DNA testing.
Heather and Michael Jones were charged in December with first-degree murder and child abuse.
Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman said when announcing charges that the crime scene was one of the worst things police investigators had ever seen.
