A Bucyrus truck driver pleads guilty to abusing a corpse after he dumped a Tennessee woman's body in an abandoned rest area off U.S. Route 23 in early July.
NBC 4 reported with an update to a story we've been following since it broke.
Trenton Derenberger, 33, pleaded guilty to fifth-degree-felony abuse of a corpse Wednesday in Judge P. Randall Knese's Pickaway County Common Pleas courtroom.
Kim Vaughn's body was found partially clothed by ODOT workers who were emptying trash. Her body was found behind a trash barrel at an abandoned rest stop July 8.
Vaughn, 36, who lived in Memphis, was last seen alive in Knoxville, Tenn., at a fueling area.
Authorities told NBC 4 Derenberger confessed to dumping Vaughn's body in the rest area so someone would find her.
"He's indicated a story -- and I want to repeat a story -- of how that she passed away in his presence," said Pickaway County Detective Dale Parish. "But he acknowledged that she did pass away in his presence and that he transported her in the cab of his semi-tractor along his route, making other pick-ups and wound up back in the Columbus, Ohio, area, and then under the cover of darkness returned with the semi-tractor and then dumped her body in the old rest area."
Parish said he believes Derenberger was possibly motivated by fear.
Authorities said because no cause of death has been established, no additional charges were filed against Derenberger.
The results of the autopsy, or toxicology, still were pending Thursday.
The preliminary autopsy wasn't conclusive and offered little information on Vaughn's cause of death.
Derenberger's sentencing was to follow a pre-sentence investigation.
He is to remain jailed without bond until the pre-sentence investigation is completed.
He could face six to 12 months in jail for the abuse of a corpse charge.
Derenberger works for a Columbus trucking firm.
For the latest information on this developing story, stay with NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com.
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