After 16 years, life sentence for Visalia man who strangled his wife. He said she ran away

A 45-year-old Visalia man has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering his wife — after nearly 20 years.

Joseph Allen Hughes was found guilty of second-degree murder in November and given the life sentence in federal court Tuesday.

He must serve 15 years before being considered for parole, according to a news release from the Tulare County Districty Attorney’s Office.

The body of Sonia Hughes was found in a shallow grave on the bank of Mill Creek near Akers Street in Visalia in 2006.

She had been strangled.

Hughes reported that his wife had ran away, but he never filed a missing persons report.

Though he had been a suspect early in the investigation, it took detectives 10 years to arrest and charge Hughes for the crime, and only happened after a family member came forward with information that they had seen Hughes beating his wife on the night she was last seen alive.

Hughes was ultimately charged with Sonia’s murder in October 2017.

At the time, he was already being held in prison for robbery and felony vandalism.