A court has sentenced a Brazilian businessman to 24 years in jail for shooting dead his young fiancee who was nine months pregnant before her body was placed in a barrel and tossed in a river never to be recovered.

The court in the Brazilian city of Belem found Alessandro Camilo Lima guilty of aggravated homicide, child destruction and concealment of a human corpse.

Ana Karina Guimaraes was 29 years old and nine months pregnant when she was shot dead in the city of Parauapebas in 2010.

Her dead body was placed into a barrel and thrown into the Itacaiunas River. It was never recovered.

Lima is believed to have masterminded the crime that also saw his accomplice, Francisco de Assis Dias, sentenced to three years and 40 days in prison for concealment of a human corpse.

Lima’s current fiancee, Graziela Barros de Almeida, was also tried but absolved of all guilt due to lack of evidence.

Lima confessed to killing his then-fiancee with Dias and another accomplice, Florentino de Souza Rodrigues, who was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2013.

Despite her acquittal, the Public Prosecutor’s Office believes Almeida helped her now-fiance to plan Ana Karina’s murder.

According to the court, Lima arranged to meet his then-fiancee on the pretext of giving her money to help with the costs of the upcoming birth of their child.

However, he then took her to a discreet location where Dias and Souza were waiting for her.

According to the court, Lima had brought the barrel with him in his pickup truck and he placed stones and drilled holes in it so it would sink along with Ana Karina’s body.

It is unclear why it took so long for Lima, Dias and Almeida to stand trial.