Sentence upheld for man in murder, decapitation

A former racing mechanic convicted of strangling his estranged wife and decapitating her to make her body hard to identify must serve the 60 years to which he was sentenced, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.

Michael G. Albrecht had appealed after a Marion Superior Court judge refused to reduce his sentence or grant him a new trial in the 1992 murder of 31-year-old Cynthia L. Albrecht. Both Albrechts had been employed by different owners in the now-defunct Championship Auto Racing Teams.

She disappeared Oct. 25, 1992, after returning from a race in California shortly before the couple's divorce was to be finalized. Her headless body was found about three weeks later in northern Indiana's Newton County and was identified by surgical scars and fingerprints...