A man will almost assuredly spend the rest of his life in prison for shooting his girlfriend and then leaving her to die in a roadside ditch.

Joshua McGee, 39, was sentenced to 65 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for murdering his girlfriend, 37-year-old Ashley Tankersley, in 2021. A Peoria County jury found McGee guilty in August of first-degree murder and the unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon, the Peoria County State’s Attorney’s Office announced.

Fifty-five of the years are for the murder charge and 10 years are for the weapons charge, with McGee legally needing to serve the entire murder sentence, Illinois 10th Judicial Circuit Court Chief Judge Katherine Gorman said.

On Aug. 22, 2021, before 1 a.m., McGee shot Tankersley “and left her to die in a roadside ditch,” authorities said. Peoria County Sheriff’s Office deputies subsequently responded to a 911 call near Philander Chase Lane and U.S. 150 in Brimfield. When they arrived, they found the victim with multiple gunshot wounds. She was later pronounced dead.

According to the state’s attorney’s office, law enforcement investigators were able to trace the call to McGee’s phone, and they learned that he was at a rest stop in Sherman, Illinois, around 85 miles south.

“Law enforcement surrounded the vehicle, leading to a standoff that lasted several hours before McGee was taken into custody,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Inside McGee’s vehicle, law enforcement found “a handgun, two spent shell casings, and items belonging to Tankersley,” per the state’s attorney’s office. “Forensic testing later confirmed that Tankersley’s blood was found on McGee’s shoes, and a firearms expert determined that the shell casings were fired from the gun recovered in McGee’s car.”

Furthermore, cellphone records are said to have placed McGee’s device at the scene of the murder.

The 911 call that brought law enforcement to Tankersley’s body was later played in court during McGee’s trial, per local TV station WEEK. An apparently male voice could be heard telling the operator, “she’s shot. Please help her” before the caller hung up.

Peoria County Sheriff Chris Watkins reportedly testified in court that when law enforcement traced the call to McGee’s phone, he called the man several times and got an answer around 4 a.m.

They are said to have spoken on and off for about two hours, with McGee asking if “she” was okay and asking what hospital “she” was at. The since-condemned man said he had been intoxicated, and a friend of Tankersley testified she had been drinking with her friend and McGee earlier that night at her house before the couple’s mood changed and they left.

Tankersley was remembered in her obituary as being “well known for her vibrant personality, smile, and making those around her laugh.”