Huntington man pleads guilty to 2022 murder

A Huntington man accused of shooting a woman and setting her body on fire pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison Tuesday. Peter Vanmaasdam, 33, pleaded guilty to murder and concealing a body in the shooting death of Mary Jane Deel, 46, of Huntington in September 2022. Investigators said Vanmaasdam shot Deel with a shotgun. Her body was found near railroad tracks in the 300 block of Seventh Avenue days later in a “highly vegetated area” where she had been set on fire in an attempt to allegedly hide the crime. He was sentenced to 40 years on the murder charge and 1-5 on the second charge, both of which will run consecutively. Vanmaasdam said during his plea hearing he blacked out during the incident.