CLAY COUNTY, Ill. — Sentencing for the former Fairfield man found guilty of the 2014 murder of Megan Nichols has been scheduled for the end of this month.

A Wayne County jury found 27-year-old Brodey Murbarger guilty in November of killing his high school girlfriend Megan Nichols.

Her cause of death was determined to be probable asphyxiation by homicidal violence.

Megan disappeared on July 3, 2014, from her Fairfield home. Her body was found more than three years later buried in a farm field in rural Boyleston.

Murbarger was 18, and Nichols was 15 at the time of her disappearance. Murbarger was arrested in 2020 and charged with first-degree murder in the case, along with concealing a homicidal death and home invasion involving a sexual offense.

Prior to the jury trial, prosecutors opted to not pursue the concealment of a homicide and to try the home invasion charges separately.

Murbarger was seeking a new trial in the case and had filed a motion for acquittal.

Judge Michael Molt on Friday denied that motion and scheduled a January 25 sentencing in the case.