St. Louis woman incriminated by diary sentenced to prison

ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis woman whose diary entry detailed dumping a body along a highway has been sentenced to two years in prison.

A judge on Friday sentenced 39-year-old Joni Janis. She pleaded guilty in September to abandonment of a corpse and a drug charge.

Authorities say 26-year-old Kierstin Whitcher of Waterloo, Illinois, died in 2017 of a diabetes complication. Police found Janis’ diary in which she wrote that a male tenant of an apartment in her home left behind the woman, saying she was in a coma.

Janis explained in her diary that when she realized the woman was dead, she put the body in a car, which was left alongside the highway with the woman inside.

Her husband, Timothy Janis, was sentenced previously to two years in prison.