FAYETTEVILLE — A Washington County woman pleaded guilty Monday to killing her mother.

Delores Jean Eggert, 50, was sentenced to 30 years at the Arkansas Department of Correction for first-degree murder as part of a plea bargain.

Eggert, 50, beat her mother and shot her three times on June 14, 2007, and then burned the body on the family’s rural farm. She had been charged with capital murder, but it was reduced as part of the plea agreement.

“Any murder case is a terrible situation,” Washington County Circuit Judge William Storey told Eggert.

Pauline Devor was 70 when she disappeared. Her husband, Bob Devor, returned home from a business trip on June 15, 2007 to find the house burglarized and his wife gone. Several thousand dollars in bank bags and 14 guns were among the items Bob Devor reported missing.

Bob Devor was arrested Monday on a preliminary charge of hindering apprehension or prosecution. Authorities say he staged the crime scene, lied to mislead investigators, concealed evidence, gave Eggert access to cash and Pauline Devor’s vehicle and assisted her with fleeing Washington County.

“Mr. Devor made statements to a witness for the state within days of the murder of his wife acknowledging his prior knowledge of the murder and cover up of the crime after it was committed, to aid Delores Eggert in avoiding arrest and prosecution,” according to a preliminary report from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

Bob Devor also had a sexual relationship with Eggert, his step-daughter, which started in 2005, according to the report.

“I’m relieved that it’s over,” Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett said. “It was going to take a long time, and it wasn’t going to be easy.”

Durrett said he does not anticipate any other arrests.

Authorities found what appeared to be bullet holes in a wall inside the Devor home, but were not able to get evidence of Devor’s death until an informant came forward.

Monica Bautista told police in 2009 that she helped Eggert plan the murder, lure Devor to the location, kill Devor and burn her body. Bautista is not being charged with a crime, according to Durrett.

Authorities using that information then found what they believe to be minuscule human remains, including charred bones and a couple of dental crowns, on the Devor farm in northwest Washington County, near Cincinnati, in April 2009.

The crowns compare favorably and are consistent with crowns known to be in Devor’s mouth, according to court documents. No other remains have been found.

According to court documents, police had at least four people who were recording phone calls or conversations with Eggert. Eggert told one woman, who was wearing a wire, that she threw some of the remains into a river.

Calls Eggert made from jail were also recorded and letters she sent from jail were seized.

Prosecutors were not seeking the death penalty in Eggert’s case. If she had been convicted of capital murder, Eggert would have receive an automatic life term without parole.

First-degree murder is punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in prison.