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A judge on Friday sentenced Brooke Crews to life in prison without possibility of parole for killing Savanna Greywind and stealing her unborn baby, a shocking crime the Fargo police chief called a "cruel, vicious act of depravity."


Greywind, 22, was eight months pregnant when she disappeared last August. In court, a prosecutor said Crews lured Greywind to her apartment, knocked her unconscious and cut her unborn baby from her.

Fargo chief says Greywind a victim of 'cruel, vicious act of depravity'


Kayakers later discovered Greywind's body wrapped in plastic and duct tape in the Red River. Police also probed an abandoned northwestern Minnesota farmstead as a possible crime scene.


Greywind was last seen at her Fargo apartment Aug. 19. Authorities in Fargo and Moorhead, Minn., launched an intensive search for her after police found Crews with a newborn baby and arrested her and William Henry Hoehn. They were Greywind's neighbors. 


The pair indicated to police that the infant was Greywind's but would not answer questions about her whereabouts.

North Dakota prosecutors filed murder conspiracy and kidnapping conspiracy charges against Crews and Hoehn. Both pleaded innocent. 


Crews later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and providing false information to police. Hoehn is scheduled for trial in the case later this year. 


The baby is in the custody of her father, Greywind's boyfriend.

Crews was also sentenced Friday to 20 years for conspiracy to commit kidnapping and 163 days for providing false information to investigators.

In court, she told the family she was sorry and wished she could take back what she had done. 


Greywind's mother, Norberta Greywind, told the court her heart was "literally broken, and the nightmares are horrific."

Dan Gunderson

Author

Prosecutors said Brooke Crews lured Savanna Greywind, 22, to her apartment, knocked her unconscious and cut her unborn baby from her, a crime the Fargo police chief called a "vicious act of depravity."

Fargo woman gets life for killing pregnant Greywind, stealing baby

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