(Albuquerque) Linda Henning has spent three and half years behind bars waiting to learn her fate. The answer finally came from District Court Judge W. John Brennan on Friday, April 18, 2003. Brennan sentenced the convicted murderer to a life sentence plus 43 years. In New Mexico, a life sentence is 30 years.

Last fall, a jury found Henning guilty of murdering 36-year-old bank teller Girly Chew Hossencofft in September of 1999.

Henning continues to claim she is innocent and hopes to receive a new trial. Her attorney, Gary Mitchell, has filed an appeal based on recently discovered new evidence.

During her sentencing, Henning read aloud her seven page written statement to the court. The statement is highly critical of prosecutors, detectives, the judge and others involved in the case.

*note: I was not present for Henning's sentencing. Instead, I was in northern New Mexico covering the annual Good Friday pilgrimage to Chimayo for KOB-TV. Because I was the only reporter working the dayshift for the station that day, management said, regretfully, it had no choice but to assign me to the popular Chimayo story (the station did send a photographer to Henning's sentencing).

**For more information about Henning's sentencing, please refer to the story written by Albuquerque Tribune reporter Joline Gutierrez Krueger. As always, Joline's story is very well written and reported. The Tribune has a seperate article devoted to the entire text of Henning's seven page written statement. The Albuquerque Journal also has a story on the sentencing. However, the Journal's Web site requires that you obtain and enter a password before accessing its archives.

This photo of Linda Henning was taken two days before her sentencing. On April 16, a hearing was held to address an Albuquerque psychic's claim that private investigator Maurice Moya told her that he knows where Girly Chew Hossencofft was murdered and where the body is buried. Mr. Moya is an investigator for attorney Ray Twohig. Mr. Twohig represents a co-defendant in the case, Bill Miller. The hearing did not shed any light on the location of the body. Investigator Moya denied making the alleged remark. Mr. Twohig claimed the hearing was the prosecutor's "publicity stunt." Prosecutor Paul Spier's said the hearing was aimed at shedding light on the location of Girly's remains.

 

Miller trial postponed

(Albuquerque) The trial of defendant Bill Miller is now set to begin July 14, 2003. Mr. Miller is charged with five counts of tampering with evidence. The trial had previously been scheduled to begin in April.

 

(Albuquerque) Mark Horner's Web site dedicated to the Girly Chew Hossencofft murder case is back in action.

After taking this Web site offline nearly four weeks ago, several people wrote that they were disappointed that it was no longer available. Some even e-mailed their questions about the case to Horner (this included a criminal justice student in New Hampshire who had been instructed to write a term paper about a court case with "strange circumstances").

This Web site has received a great number of visitors since its start in October of 1999. Once the Hossencofft case reached a national audience on courttv.com and Court TV in late 2002, the number of people visiting here skyrocketed. During a thirteen week period, this site received 268,572 hits.

Interest in the Hossencofft case is expected to reach millions of more Americans later this year. At least one major television network is planning to broadcast a program on this tragic and sensational story later this year.

Largely because interest in the Hossencofft case remains high, Mark Horner's Hossencofft Web site is back online. Here, you will find extensive archives concerning the compelling history of this unique story of Girly Chew Hossencofft, Diazien Hossencofft, Linda Henning, Bill Miller and a great many others. You can simply click on any of the links located on the left side of this page or you can use the search engine located in the upper left corner. The search engine is an excellent tool for anyone looking for specific information about the case.

Within this site, you will also find an extensive archive of newspaper stories about the Hossencofft case to compliment your research.

"The Book"

In another exciting development, Horner is writing a book about the Girly Chew Hossencofft case. The book will include extensive details and insights which have never been reported. More information about this exciting venture will become available on this web site at a later date.

 

Finally, please note that the contents of this Web site are copyright protected. In the past, many people have taken content, especially photographs, without permission (just search Google and you'll find pictures and cached pages from this site landing all over cyberspace). The pages of this site are now "right click" protected. Each page also includes a notice of copyright. Please respect the copyright.