Police: Georgia veteran sentenced to life for murder of girlfriend

A Georgia veteran has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to murdering his girlfriend.

Officials say 25-year-old Brian Marsh Semrinec pled guilty to the 2017 murder of 28-year-old Shuyi Li, whom he met while working at a business in Canton, Georgia.

Cobb Police were called for a welfare check after Li failed to show up to work on Sept. 18, 2017. When they entered her home on Willington Shoals Place, officers found Li's body "wrapped in a blanket and partially buried underneath a mound of spices and other items."

An investigation showed that Li had died of multiple wounds to her head and neck. She had last seen alive two days earlier. Her car and credit card were missing, and police eventually discovered that Semrinec had been using them.

Several days after Li's body was discovered, officials say Semrinec turned up at a Veterans Affairs Hospital in Dallas, telling a security guard he had "killed his girlfriend."

“By all accounts, Shuyi Li was a remarkable young woman. Her loss deeply impacted not only her family members, but members of the community who knew her,” said Chief Assistant District Attorney Jesse Evans.

Cobb Superior Court Judge A. Gregory Poole sentenced Semrinec to life in prison after accepting his plea.

“I don’t understand why someone would take the life of a young woman under any circumstance; I just don’t understand it,” Poole said during the sentencing. “But good luck to you.”

Semrinec will have to serve 30 years before he is given the possibility of parole.