Spurned suitor gets 30-year term for killing female friend

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (WPVI) -- A man convicted of strangling a female friend who had spurned his romantic overtures has been sentenced to 30 year in prison.

William Gennett will not be eligible to seek parole under the sentence imposed Thursday. He had been convicted in June on murder and stalking charges.

Burlington County prosecutors say the 55-year-old Tabernacle man and 45-year-old Shannon O'Rourke were friends, but Gennett was using a cellphone app that allowed him to track her whereabouts without her knowledge.

They say Gennett killed O'Rourke in July 2016 in her Lumberton home when she rejected his attempts to turn their friendship into a romantic relationship.

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