Allecha Boyd's family pleads with killer Samuel John Shephard to reveal location of body

Samuel John Shephard, 39, was jailed for a total of 27 years and seven months, with a non-parole period of 20 years and eight months, on charges of murder and supplying a large commercial quantity of methamphetamine.

He had pleaded guilty to both charges at an earlier hearing.

As Shephard was led from the Wagga Supreme Court on Friday, members of Ms Boyd's family began calling out to him from the public gallery, asking "Where is Allecha?" and "Please tell us where Allecha is".

Ms Boyd was 27 when she was shot dead by Shephard on August 10, 2017. Her body was buried in Lester State Forest near Coolamon and has never been recovered.

Speaking outside the courthouse after Shephard was sentenced, Ms Boyd's sister Rhiannon Boyd said "when we go home tomorrow, she (Allecha) is still going to be here".

"It was really emotional at the end of the sentence, seeing him obviously look back at our family and say he's trying to find my sister," Rhiannon said.

"He looked like he was crying ... He did have some sort of remorse."

Rhiannon said she and other family members, who travelled to Wagga for the sentencing, had a chance encounter with a woman who had known her sister.

"She had nothing but nice things to say," she said.

"Allecha is a good person and she was a good person. We just need to get her home."

Rhiannon said her family would "never give up" searching for Allecha's body.

In his sentencing remarks, Justice Richard Button said he had heard three "heartfelt" victim impact statements. Read at a previous hearing, the statements were made by Rhiannon and by Allecha's father Ian Boyd and mother Leah Freeman.

"Unquestionably, the consequences of the loss of the deceased that day will be felt for many decades," Justice Button said.

"The family of Ms Boyd has been severely damaged almost to the point of destruction. More than one person has sought solace in alcohol; others have obsessively searched for her body; others reflect bitterly on the unrealised potential of this talented chef; yet others rely upon medication for anxiety and depression just to keep going.

"All, I infer, are unable to comprehend how or why this short life was snuffed out.

"As I have said, their pain is made worse by the inability to conduct a funeral with a respectful burial.

"Regrettably, I suspect that form of closure will never be available."

The court heard Shephard shot Ms Boyd "three or four times" after confronting her about an alleged break-in at a home at The Rock.

"Although it is true that the deceased cannot have suffered for an extended period, there is surely something almost dismissive about the execution of a person by way of the use of a handgun," Justice Button said.

"Thus, the life of a fellow human being was extinguished, for no other reason other than the offender believed that she was some sort of annoyance, or trouble, or threat."

At a previous hearing, defence counsel Eric Wilson said Shephard "did not seek to place any form of subjective case because he accepts the seriousness of the offences as outlined in the agreed facts".

Justice Button said the inevitable outcome of this approach was that "I know very little about him, and in particular nothing that could reduce the sentence for either offences, except what I can glean from the Crown case on sentence".

"I know nothing of his upbringing, adolescence, early adulthood or physical, psychological and psychiatric health at any stage of his life," the judge said.

Shephard was not the only person convicted over Ms Boyd's death.

Anthony Shane Hagan, from Mount Austin, is serving an almost five-year sentence after admitting in late 2018 to burying Ms Boyd's body in the state forest.

Hagan said he helped dig a grave and covered her body with dirt and small branches. He was convicted of being an accessory after the fact, and with the sentence backdated to when he was placed in custody in 2017 and a non-parole period of three years, he could be released as early as November this year.

Tracy Lee King, Shephard's partner, was jailed in December for a maximum of two years and three months after also pleading guilty to being an accessory after the fact.

The earliest date Shephard will be eligible for parole is June 26, 2038.