FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — A Squaw Valley man who admitted killing three people over a five-year span was sentenced Friday to spend the rest of his life in prison.

40-year-old Buford Jonathan King was sentenced to an aggregate term of 50 years to life plus life without the possibility of parole in state prison for the murders of Aleksey Shelest, Donnie Lee, and Albert Contreras.

Fresno County Superior Court Judge Alvin Harrell imposed the sentence following King’s plea agreement entered in March.

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During the investigation and criminal proceedings, King claimed he killed the victims after witnessing or learning of alleged acts of sexual abuse involving children or vulnerable victims.

Those allegations were never adjudicated in court and, in several instances, could not be independently verified by investigators.

Shelest was reported missing to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office on May 28, 2016, by his sister.

Lee was reported missing by two concerned individuals on Nov. 9, 2016, who said Lee had been living with King in Squaw Valley and that the two had argued over money.

On Nov. 22, 2016, another witness contacted law enforcement with concerns about Lee’s welfare, saying Lee had gone to King’s property to collect money owed to him and had not been seen since. The witness also reported seeing fresh digging on King’s property.

Investigators opened parallel missing-person investigations into the disappearances of Shelest and Lee and interviewed numerous witnesses, including King and his girlfriend in January 2017.

King told investigators the last time he saw Lee was around Nov. 1, 2016.

The investigation remained unresolved until March 2019, when Fresno County Sheriff’s Office Detective Jose Diaz received information that King’s girlfriend had information about the disappearances.

She told investigators she came forward after becoming fearful following a recent jail visit with King, and said King threatened to kill her if she ever tried to leave him.

She described multiple holes dug on King’s property and on a neighboring property. She recalled King telling her Shelest had been shot while standing inside one of the holes. She also said she heard a gunshot one evening and was later told by King that Shelest had left the property, leaving behind his dog.

She also reported that on Nov. 5, 2016, she heard a gunshot and was later shown Lee lying on the ground with catastrophic head injuries. She believed Lee had been buried on the neighboring property because the area appeared freshly disturbed and covered the next day.

Detectives executed search warrants on both properties in Squaw Valley on March 20 and 26, 2019, where they located Shelest’s remains along with personal belongings, including his phone and wallet.

The search for Lee continued, but his remains were not immediately located.

King was interviewed at the Fresno County Jail on April 14, 2019, and confessed to killing Shelest and Lee, according to the account of the investigation. He identified where Shelest had been buried and admitted shooting him on his property. When questioned about Lee, King indicated Lee had suffered the same fate and later identified an area where Lee had been buried.

During the interview, detectives asked King whether there were additional victims. King later contacted investigators about another homicide in Tulare County.

On April 25, 2019, King provided investigators with information about the killing of a man later identified as Contreras. King claimed he encountered Contreras while responding to what he described as an assault involving a young girl at an apartment complex in Visalia in 2011. King admitted strangling Contreras to death, transporting the body and burying the remains.

Detectives from the Visalia Police Department reviewed missing-person cases from that time period and identified Contreras as a potential match. After being shown a photograph, King positively identified Contreras as the victim.

Coordinated searches were conducted April 26, 2019, in Visalia and Squaw Valley for the remains of Contreras and Lee, but the initial searches were unsuccessful. The next day, April 27, 2019, investigators transported King to both burial locations. King directed detectives to the burial sites of Contreras and Lee, and the remains of both victims were recovered.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy District Attorneys Liz Owen and David Olmos of the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office Homicide Unit, with assistance from Commander Derek Scott of the Bureau of Investigations. The Fresno County District Attorney’s Office also credited the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, Tulare County Sheriff’s Office and the Visalia Police Department for their investigative work in the multi-year case.