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Murderer hid ex-girlfriend's body amid cow carcasses

A Chester County man was convicted this evening of fatally strangling his ex-girlfriend and concealing the body in a compost pile at the Cochranville dairy farm where he worked.

A Chester County jury deliberated for three and a half hours this afternoon before rejecting Mauricio Jose Bedolla-Comacho's version of the events that led to the fatal strangulation of his 25-year-old ex-girlfriend, Daicy Vasquez-Bedolla, more than three years ago.

The panel convicted Bedolla-Comacho of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence, as well as possessing an instrument of crime: the rope he squeezed around her neck.

Assistant Public Defender H. Peter Jurs had argued that his client had killed the mother of their 3-year-old daughter in a jealous rage, a crime of passion consistent with the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter. He said Bedolla-Comacho became enraged when Vasquez-Bedolla showed him graphic photos of herself and her daughter with a new boyfriend.

Assistant District Attorney Bonnie Cox-Shaw disputed Jurs' account, pointing out that Bedolla-Comacho's brother testified that he received a call a month before Vasquez-Bedolla's slaying from Bedolla-Comacho for what she termed "a practice run." She said Bedolla-Comacho proved that he had sinister plans when he falsely reported: "Come quick. I did it. I killed Daicy."  Four weeks later, Bedolla-Comacho's brother was called again, this time to help with an escape plan. Bedolla-Comacho, who was in the country illegally, was apprehended two days after the murder in Louisiana on a Mexico-bound bus by immigration officials, according to court records.

Cox-Shaw also pointed to the testimony of Ian Hood, a forensic pathologist, who said death by strangulation requires three to five minutes of continued pressure. The prosecutor pointed to the clock, giving periodic countdowns until five minutes -- "a lot of time to reconsider" -- had elapsed.