(Caption and Credit for Photo: Thomas Stanko is escorted by Westmoreland County Sheriffs deputies after a guilty verdict on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026 at the Westmoreland County Courthouse. (Shane Dunlap/ TribLive)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Westmoreland County, PA) Thomas Stanko, 55, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole after being convicted of killing a Westmoreland County woman who disappeared in 2018.

He was also sentenced to an additional 42 to 84 months in prison for a reckless burning conviction.

Stanko’s estranged girlfriend, Cassandra Gross of Unity Township, was never found after she went missing April 7, 2018. A judge later declared her legally dead about nine months after her disappearance.

A Westmoreland County jury convicted Stanko of first-degree murder and reckless burning on Feb. 11, 2026, but acquitted him of third-degree murder.