Joseph Leroy Jones will be spending the rest of his life behind bars without the possibility of parole, and a family will continue to grieve not knowing what happened to their loved one.

The man convicted for killing Monesha Leath after her disappearance in 2022 was sentenced by Tallapoosa Circuit Superior Court Judge Andrew Roper on Wednesday at the conclusion of a hearing to a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Jones was convicted after a jury came back in early February with a guilty verdict for malice murder in Leath’s disappearance.

This despite the fact that Leath’s remains have never been found.

District Attorney Jack Browning said after the sentencing that justice was served with the sentence imposed on Jones, but that it will bring little comfort to a family who just wants to know what happened to Monesha.

“Like so many such cases, the family will never have closure. And, in this particular, the family’s lack of closure is all the more painful because Monesha’s body has never been found,” Browning said. “They will never be able to say their goodbyes or provide her the burial that Mr. Jones took from them. We ask the community to continue to keep the family in the prayers.

Leath, 32 at the time she went missing in February 2022, was last known in the location of the Floyd-Polk County lines when she went missing on February 24 just over two years ago.

Jones was brought back to Polk County after being charged for murder in August 2022.

Browning personally tried the case against Jones in a weeklong trial that concluded on February 3.

It was a rare case where a prosecution was successful for a murder conviction where no body is found to prove the death occurred. Browning was thankful for the efforts of law enforcement agencies locally and statewide, including agents from the GBI, officers in McDuffie County, Floyd County, the City of Rome, and 911 operations in Polk and Floyd counties. He gave particular credit previously to GBI agent Ghee Wilson and Cedartown officer Josh Jackson for their diligent work on the case.