GUILTY PA - Kristin McNally, 32, murdered at Bensalem motel, 11 May 2015

A Warminster man who admitted fatally beating and strangling his girlfriend in a Bensalem motel last year has been sentenced to at least 29 years and nine months in state prison.

Joseph McFadden, 39, pleaded guilty Thursday in Bucks County Common Pleas Court to third-degree murder, felony theft and other charges in the May 11, 2015, slaying of Kristin McNally.

“I know I can never fix what has been done,” McFadden told Judge Gary B. Gilman and many of McNally’s relatives and friends who attended the hearing. “But I truly am sorry. I truly am.” He did not say in court why he had killed McNally, but acknowledged taking her car, cell phone and cash.

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Her loved ones described McNally as a spontaneous, loving woman missed by many, especially her 4-year-old son, Zackary, “who constantly wonders where his mother went,” said Mike Forr, the child’s father.

“I try to explain to him as best I can that his mommy is in heaven,” Forr said in court. “But when Zackary is older, how do I explain this horrific truth? He will just be left with this horrendous tragedy.”

Kimberly McNally, the victim’s sister, noted that McFadden’s sentencing came on what would have been Kristin McNally’s 34th birthday.

“It’s a day when we should be celebrating,” she said, “but instead we’re here having to face the man that took her life away.”

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