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Liverpool man admits to killing ex-girlfriend

Story Created: Feb 15, 2011 at 1:05 PM EDT

Story Updated: Feb 15, 2011 at 1:48 PM EDT

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - A 21-year-old man has admitted killing his former girlfriend while she was home from college for Thanksgiving break and dumping her body in a suburban Syracuse park.

Syracuse media outlets report that Steven Pieper of Liverpool pleaded guilty Tuesday morning in Onondaga County Court to second-degree murder in last November's slaying of 20-year-old Jenni-Lyn Watson.

Pieper admitted strangling and suffocating Watson inside her parents' home in the town of Clay on November 19 and hiding her body in a wooded area in a nearby park.

Watson had returned home from Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., for Thanksgiving the day before she was killed. Searchers found her body eight days later.

Under a plea deal, Pieper will be sentenced to 23 years to life in prison on March 8.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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