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AUSTIN, Texas - Five years ago: March 2010.
21-year-old Julie Ann Gonzalez's family is handing out fliers desperately trying to find her.
Her soon to be ex-husband George De La Cruz was allegedly the last person to see her alive.
FOX 7 spoke with him.
"Yeah, I was the last person to see, I understand I'm the suspect but like I said, I don't have nothing to be afraid of. I didn't do nothing," De La Cruz said.
Gonzalez's car was found abandoned at a nearby Walgreens where she worked.
De La Cruz's story is that she asked him to watch their daughter a few more days and then left town with a new lover.
5 years later: De La Cruz sat in a Travis County courtroom charged with his estranged-wife's murder.
Mylinda Burrow, Gonzalez's Walgreens manager testified Julie Ann was scared after she filed for divorce.
"And she had also told me that if anything ever happened to her, it was him," she said.
Austin Police officer Jason Day who first responded to concerns about Gonzalez's disappearance testified they didn't know about any threats and that De La Cruz seemed to cooperate.
"The reason for our hesitation was some communication from facebook and so forth that she might have left voluntarily. So with that information we did not pursue it further," Day said.
Prosecutors suggested a freshly dug hole under De La Cruz's backyard shed may have been a temporary shallow grave for Gonzalez's body.
A burnt spot was also found with remnants of clothing -- like part of a purple shoe string.
This week, the jury found De La Cruz guilty. They reportedly couldn't ignore tracking data from cellphone towers that put Gonzalez's missing phone near locations where De La Cruz frequently visited.
And he went on a shopping spree with her debit card.
On Thursday, pent up emotions erupted in the courtroom as a life sentence was delivered.
De La Cruz's life sentence comes with the possibility of parole in 30 years.
There is a possibility there are several accomplices who helped De La Cruz cover all of this up.
Prosecutors may try to track them down.