OGDEN, Utah (AP) – A Utah woman accused of helping her husband dump their teenage baby sitter’s body in the woods after a night of sex and drugs has been sentenced to up to five years in prison.
A state judge sentenced 41-year-old Dea Millerberg in an emotional hearing on Thursday. Calling the crime heinous and depraved, Judge W. Brent West said he would have leveled a harsher sentence if not for a plea deal prosecutors agreed to in exchange for Millerberg’s testimony against her husband.
“She lost all her common sense, and was not in a position to help Alexis when she needed her the most,” said West as Millerberg burst into racking sobs.
Prosecutors said Millerberg and her husband had a drug-fueled, salacious sexual relationship with 16-year-old Alexis Rasmussen that led to her death from an overdose in 2011. Rasmussen had a friend who lived across the street from the Millerbergs, and they began giving her drugs in exchange for baby-sitting services, prosecutors said.
She was missing for more than a month before a man who helped Eric Millerberg move Rasmussen’s body led police to where she was hidden.