The shocking murder of an estate agent in America – with chilling reminders of the UK cases of Suzy Lamplugh and Stephanie Slater – has ended with the murderer being handed a life sentence, with no chance of parole.

His accomplice was given 30 years in jail.

Arron Lewis had plotted with his estranged wife, Crystal Lowery, to lure Beverley Carter to a fake house viewing. Lowery was sentenced to 30 years last year.

The pair had planned to kidnap Beverley and demand a ransom.

However, the plot went awry, with Beverley being suffocated by what prosecutors called a death mask made of duct take.

The autopsy showed she had died through suffocation.

Her body was not found for five days.

Beverley had vanished after telling her husband that she was showing a property to prospective buyers.

Defence lawyers for Lewis claimed that Beverley had died accidentally during consensual sex, but prosecutors said that was a total fabrication.

Beverley’s son Carl said it was terrible how her “sweet name” had been dragged through the mud.

He said: “The only thing that Beverley did that day was go to work.”

Suzy Lamplugh vanished after a viewing and is presumed dead. Stephanie Slater was viciously attacked and abducted on a viewing, although she survived.