(Image source from: Chicago Tribune)

The husband of a woman who was killed along a little-traveled suburban Chicago road in 1973 has been sentenced to 75 to 100 years in prison.

The 76-year-old Donnie Rudd was sentenced on Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court.

It was one day diffident of the 45th anniversary of the death of 19-year-old Noreen Kumeta Rudd.

The sentence is probably to confine Rudd to prison for the rest of his life. Initially, authorities ruled the death as accidental. However, it was categorized as a homicide after a 2013 postmortem.

Rudd, an attorney, and a former school board member, was charged with murder in 2015 while living in Sugar Land, Texas.

Prosecutors say Rudd staged the crash so he could collect more than USD 100,000 in insurance money. His attorneys say the woman died in a "tragic accident" and the case lacks solid evidence.

By Sowmya Sangam