A Colorado teenager pleaded guilty on Tuesday to murdering and dismembering 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway, CNN reported.
Austin Sigg, 19, was 17 when he committed the crimes and lives just one mile away from the Ridgeway residence. He was also charged in an unrelated attempted kidnapping case of an unnamed female jogger in Westminster.
During the investigation, police discovered the girl's backpack in another town and found her torso stuffed in a black trash bag at a park just five days after she went missing on October 5. She was last seen walking to Witt Elementary School.
Although authorities began collecting evidence, it wasn't until Sigg's mother called the police and forced her son to confess to the brutal crime that they began pressing charges.
"I made the phone call, and he turned himself in. That's all I have to say," Sigg's mother, Mindy, told The Associated Press.
"I murdered Jessica Ridgeway, I have proof that I did. I'm giving myself up completely, there will be no resistance whatsoever," Sigg said on the 911 call.
As the police continued questioning Rigg, he eventually admitted to the attempted kidnapping of the jogger. An investigator testified in court that Sigg admitted to searching for a chloroform recipe on the Internet and also seized child pornography from his computer.
The judge accepted his plea and scheduled his official sentencing for November 18 and 19, according to court spokesman Rob McCallum.
Sigg was charged with strangling and dismembering Ridgeway in addition to placing her body parts in a crawlspace underneath his family's home.
He originally pleaded not guilty, despite early media reports that said he admitted to the murder and attempted kidnapping.
Since Sigg was 17-years-old at the time of the crimes, he is protected from the death penalty according to Colorado law. He currently faces life in prison and may be eligible for parole after 40 years served.
