Updating the story from last year on the murder of 7-year old Willow Long, her uncle, 22-year old Justin DeRyke, pleaded guilty yesterday to the murder of his niece, and per the plea agreement he will spend the rest of his life in prison without possibility of parole.  He was charged with killing the girl on September 7, 2013, in the rural Effingham County community of Watson.  Hundreds of volunteers came to help search for the little girl who had been reported missing.  DeRyke was finally arrested after he admitted to killing the girl, saying she fell in a brush pile and a stick pierced her neck.  He told authorities he “put her out of her misery.”  Court documents indicate DeRyke told Illinois State Police Investigators he was babysitting Long and her three-year-old brother that Saturday night when Long scratched DeRyke and drew blood while she was trying to get him to go downstairs to watch TV.  DeRyke indicated he became angry when seeing the blood and began chasing Long.  He told investigators she ran outside where she fell into a brush pile and a branch impaled her neck.  DeRyke reportedly told investigators he ‘believed he had to put her out of her misery’ when Long began twitching and so he obtained a knife from his bedroom and slashed the young girl’s throat.  He also indicated he attempted to stab her approximately five times in the heart and then wrapped her body in garbage bags, sealing them with duct tape.  The four volunteers who found Long’s body are reportedly from Marion County. They apparently found the bags along the Little Wabash River near the Watson-Mason Interstate 57 interchange.  According to Effingham County State’s Attorney Bryan Kibler, the autopsy showed Long had a slash across her throat, two stab wounds across her collarbone, multiple cuts and a severed vein that most likely caused her death.  Some of the cuts to her arms indicated there may have been a struggle, but there was no mention that the autopsy showed Long’s neck had been impaled by a branch.