Dean Penney has been found guilty of first-degree murder.

The verdict came down this morning in the Corner Brook Supreme Court after several days of deliberation by the jury.

The St. Anthony man, now 53, was accused of killing his estranged wife, 38-year-old Jennifer Hillier-Penney, almost 10 years ago in December 2016.

She disappeared without a trace, with seemingly no progress in the investigation until seven years later, in 2023, when Dean Penney was arrested.

Hillier-Penney’s body has never been found, despite the scouring of land and water around St. Anthony.

She was last seen at Dean Penney’s house on Husky Drive on November 30, 2016.

Meanwhile, RCMP are going to react to the verdict this afternoon. They will take questions from the media this afternoon at police headquarters in the White Hills.