man has been sentenced to two life terms after pleading guilty to killing two sisters while he was high on methamphetamine.
Clifford Miller, 32, of Trimble in northwest Missouri, pleaded guilty on Tuesday in Platte County Circuit Court to two counts of first-degree murder.
A judge sentenced him to two life-terms without the possibility of parole in the July 2012 deaths of Britny Haarup, 19, and 22-year-old Ashley Key.
Authorities began searching for the women after Miss Haarup's fiance came home and found that their six-month-old daughter and her 18-month-old sister had been alone for hours.
Relatives of the women also said there was blood in the Edgerton residence, located 35 miles north of Kansas City.
Miller told investigators he planned to rape Miss Haarup when he went to her house.
Miller told prosecutors last July that he had gotten high on methamphetamine and went to Miss Harup's home.
He woke up her sister, Miss Key, who was sleeping on the couch. Officials said at that point, Key confronted Miller and he decided he had to get rid of her.
‘He began to punch her and beat her until she quit moving and then he smothered her with a pillow,’ Platte County Sheriff Richard Anderson said.
‘After Miller killed Ashley [Key], his intention of sexually assaulting [Haarup] then changed to an intent to kill her. He picked up an object and walked into the bedroom.’
There, Anderson said, he found Miss Haarup sleeping with one of the sisters’ small children. After Miller hit her on the head with a stick, he and Miss Haarup struggled for a bit before he also smothered her to death with a pillow, the Kansas City Star reported.
He then tried to sexually assault her, but couldn't, authorities said.
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Sisters: Britny Haarup, 19, (left) and Ashley Key, 22, (right) were murdered at Miss Haarup's home last July
Loving mother: Ms Haarup, pictured with her fiance Matt Meyers and her newborn daughter, would never abandon her two children, age 6 months and 18 months, according to family members
Miller next took the baby to the room where the other child was sleeping, smoked more meth and tried to clean up the crime scene, officials said.
He placed the women's bodies in their white Dodge Ram pick-up truck and then hid them on a farm, according to police. He also attempted to get a friend to sell four guns he found at the house for getaway money. He then went home and took a shower.
Miller was arrested last July at his girlfriend’s apartment in Parkville after police was tipped off about his whereabouts. He had allegedly confessed to the killings and told police where to find the victims' bodies.
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The girls' father told a press conference last July: 'My daughters were very wonderful people.
‘Their short lives are not going to be forgotten. Because of this situation, we are sentenced to life in our duty that the daughters left behind are aware of how special their mothers were.’
Two sisters' corpses were found in a field in Clinton County two days after they had gone missing, leaving their shoes and cell phones behind.
When Ms Haarup's fiancé came home and found the young women missing, he also discovered a bloody comforter and that some of his guns had been taken as well as a white pick-up truck.
Ms Haarup's father, Paul, said Ms Key, the mother of a four-year-old, had been 'running with the wrong crowd' and he feared someone from her past might have abducted them.
Matt Meyers, who was engaged to marry Miss Haarup, said he found her two children, age six months and 18 months, alone in their crib. She has never been known the leave her children by themselves before.
Police discovered that Ms Haarup and Ms Key, who was staying at the home in tiny Edgerton in northwest Missouri, had left their shoes and their purses. Ms Haarup also left her cell phone at the house.
No leads: Ms Haarup's white Dodge pickup truck several miles from their house, though there was no sign of the sisters
Trouble: Paul Haarup, the father of Ms Haarup, (left) said Ms Key (right) 'ran with the wrong crowd'
Fearing the worst: Police discovered a blood-soaked comforter at the house where the sisters were last seen. Several guns were also missing