Monday, December 3, 2012

A Detroit father who inspired dozens of people to look for his missing daughter has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for her murder, a year after claiming she was abducted during a carjacking.

The punishment for D'Andre Lane was mandatory Monday. He was convicted in October of first-degree murder in the death of his 2-year-old daughter, Bianca Jones, whose body hasn't been found.

Lane told police that Bianca was in the back seat of his car a year ago when a carjacker took the vehicle at gunpoint. The car was found less than an hour later but the girl was no longer inside.

Police eventually became skeptical of Lane's story, even as he stuck to it. In court Monday, he denied killing Bianca and insisted she's alive.