Warminster Man Who Killed Girlfriend Sentenced On What Would Have Been Her 34th Birthday

A Warminster man who killed his girlfriend and then tried to fake her suicide has has been sentenced to at least 29 years and nine months in state prison, the Bucks County District Attorney's office announced.

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.

McNally, 32, was found dead inside a room at the Knights Inn on Lincoln Highway in the Trevose section of Bensalem, authorities said.

McFadden’s sentencing came on what would have been Kristin McNally’s 34th birthday, authorities said. “It’s a day when we should be celebrating but instead we’re here having to face the man that took her life away," Kimberly McNally, the victim’s sister, said.

McNally's autopsy revealed she had died of blunt-force trauma to her head and manual strangulation.

According to information from the District Attorney's office, McFadden wrapped a telephone cord around her neck in a clumsy attempt to make her death appear to be a suicide.

“I know I can never fix what has been done,” McFadden told the judge. “But I truly am sorry. I truly am.”

McNally's loved ones have described her as a "spontaneous, loving woman." She left behind a 4-year-old son, Zackary.