An Indiana man who admitted to strangling his ex-wife and their teenage son before burying them in shallow graves near a coal mine has been sentenced to more than a century behind bars.

Joshua Penick, 36, was ordered to serve two 60-year sentences for the murders of his ex-wife Samantha Jerrell, 36, and their son Colton, 14. Penick murdered them in October 2024 and tried to conceal their bodies near the Bear Run Mine in Sullivan County, some 100 miles southwest of Indianapolis near the Illinois border.

"I just put my hands around her neck and wouldn't let go and buried them in the same grave," he reportedly told police when he was arrested, local NBC affiliate WTWO reported at the time.

Friends and family had raised concerns about the victims' well-being after they didn't show up to sch

See Full Page