UPDATE:
At an afternoon news conference, Deputy District Attorney Melissa Allen said Mowers told authorities he strangled Nikooei to death and dumped her body in a remote area of San Bernardino County, a few miles across the Kern County line.
Allen said Mowers agreed to take investigators to where he dumped the body, but no remains were found. An acrylic fingernail similar to the kind Nikooei wore was located and DNA testing will be conducted.
District Attorney Lisa Green said Mowers agreed to the maximum sentence of eleven years in state prison for his guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter. Prosecutors said they agreed to drop first-degree murder charges to give the family closure. She said the family was consulted before the plea deal was reached.
Mowers could have received 25 years to life if convicted on first-degree murder charges.
Kiyoshi Tomono will have much more on 17 News at 5 and 6pm.
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A Bakersfield man has admitted killing his girlfriend - an exotic dancer whose body never has been found.
Nathan Mowers, 37, pleaded guilty to a voluntary manslaughter charge in the death of his girlfriend Azita Nikooei.
Mowers had been charged with the murder in Nikooei's disappearance seven years ago.
Investigators hadn't found a body, and even the prosecutor conceded when Mowers was arrested in May it would be challenging to get a conviction.
A friend of Mowers told investigators Mowers partially confessed to the crime, documents filed in court indicate.
District Attorney Lisa Green delayed comment Monday morning until a news conference set for 1 p.m.
Azita Nikooei's 2004 disappearance prompted an outpouring of support.
Mowers was arrested near Palm Springs where lived.
Not having a body could prove difficult for the deputy district attorney who would have to piece together a series of circumstances and physical evidence to show Nikooei is in fact dead and Mowers is the person criminally responsible.
