Fifteen-year prison term for B.C. man who killed woman after party 18 years ago

KELOWNA, B.C. – A Kelowna, B.C., man will be going to prison for more than a decade for killing a young woman after the two were at a party 18 years ago.

Neil Snelson was handed a 15-year sentence for the murder of Jennifer Cusworth, but because he gets double credit for time served he’ll spend only 11 years behind bars.

Snelson, 47, was convicted of manslaughter in October for beating and strangling Cusworth in 1993.

Her father, Terry Cusworth, said outside B.C. Supreme Court that the family is relieved.

“I think it’ll take us three or four days to kind of come down from our high,” he said Friday after a judge sentenced Snelson.

A victim impact statement Thursday from Cusworth’s mother Jean labelled Snelson a “cold blooded coward” who refuses to take responsibility for the slaying.

Cusworth was a 19-year-old college student whose body was found in a ditch the day after she and Snelson attended a house party.

The crime went unsolved until investigators were able to make a DNA match between Snelson and evidence found in Cusworth’s body.

Court heard she’d been killed with a blow to the head with a blunt object.

A piece of lumber with Cusworth’s hair on it and a black belt she’d worn were found near the ditch where her body was discovered.

Snelson, a father of four children, said he had sex with a woman in his truck after the party but didn’t know who she was because he was too drunk.

He laughed after he was convicted of manslaughter. (CKFR, The Canadian Press)

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version incorrectly reported Snelson’s age as 44.