A man and his girlfriend in Utah face charges of desecration of a dead body and obstruction of justice after her husband's remains were found dumped on a rural road. The pair quickly accused one another of killing the victim, police said. Neither has been charged in connection with the death itself.
Francisco Santos-Morales, 31, and Reina Chavez Sandobal, 41, were arrested in early April following the discovery of Sandobal's husband's body on March 26 near Brown's Canyon Road in Summit County, Utah. The Summit County Sheriff's Office reported that the man was quickly identified, leading to Sandobal's arrest on April 1 and Santos-Morales's two days later. An arrest report, obtained by local NPR station KPCW, details how the two began pointing fingers at each other soon after their detentions. Sandobal told police that Santos-Morales killed her husband on March 26, a day after she confided in him about alleged abuse by her spouse. She claimed they both loaded the body into a Honda Civic and dumped it roadside, and that a hammer used in the attack plus a blood-soaked blanket remained in her apartment. Santos-Morales countered that Sandobal had fatally struck her husband. An autopsy confirmed the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head, ruling it a homicide. Police have charged both with desecration of a dead body and obstruction of justice, but not with murder. Court dates for the pair were not immediately available.