LAMAR, Mo. (AP) – A 39-year-old southwest Missouri man avoided a possible death penalty by admitting that he kidnapped and killed a 12-year-old girl in 2013.

Bobby Bourne will instead serve life in prison without parole for first-degree murder as part of a plea deal reached Friday in the death of Adriaunna Horton. He also was sentenced to a consecutive life sentence for kidnapping.

The Joplin Globe reports Bourne’s trial was scheduled to begin later this month.

Horton was kidnapped from a park in Golden City in August 2013. Three days later, Bourne led investigators to her body in a wooded area near the town.

Medical experts disagreed on how the girl died.