Cameras tracked a Honda Civic from Midvale to Browns Canyon before deputies found a body hours later, investigators say.
PARK CITY, Utah — A seven-minute stop on a rural Summit County road is now a key point in a murder case against a woman and her boyfriend accused of killing her husband and dumping his body.
Reina Chavez Sandobal, 41, of Midvale, and Francisco Santos Morales, 31, of Layton, were charged April 9 with first-degree murder in the death of Manuel Juan Sanchez, 46. Prosecutors also charged both with obstruction of justice, abuse or desecration of a dead body and domestic violence in the presence of children. The charges followed a two-week investigation that began when deputies found Sanchez’s body near Browns Canyon Road and High View Road on March 26.
The road scene came first. Deputies responded after a report that human remains covered in blood had been found in a rural area east of Park City. Investigators said Sanchez had a traumatic wound to the forehead, and evidence showed his body had been moved from the roadway area and abandoned. The location, a few miles from state Route 248, placed the case in a quiet stretch of Summit County rather than the Midvale apartment where investigators later said Sanchez likely died. The medical examiner found blunt force trauma to Sanchez’s skull and brain. That finding turned the roadside discovery into a homicide investigation, but it did not immediately answer who had killed him.
Detectives then worked backward from High View Road. Security footage from a nearby building showed a vehicle arriving around 2:22 a.m. March 26 and remaining for about seven minutes. The footage appeared to show people removing a body from the car before the vehicle left. Investigators compared that video with other records and focused on a maroon Honda Civic tied to Sandobal. Camera footage at Sandobal’s apartment complex in Midvale allegedly showed two people carrying what appeared to be Sanchez’s body into the Honda beginning around 1:04 a.m. The car’s movements were later supported by license plate reader records. The timeline placed the vehicle at the apartment, then in Browns Canyon, then back near Midvale before dawn.
The car was not invisible to police that night. Investigators said deputies stopped Sandobal near Kimball Junction shortly before 3 a.m. for a minor traffic violation. The body had already been left on High View Road, according to charging documents. At the time of the stop, authorities said Sandobal was alone in the vehicle. Prosecutors have not publicly described what the deputy saw during that traffic stop or whether the stop raised suspicion at the time. The charge documents instead use it as a marker in the route. About an hour later, a license plate reader recorded the Honda about a mile from Sandobal’s apartment in Midvale. By 2 p.m., deputies were at the body scene.
Only after Sanchez was identified did the case widen. Investigators contacted Sanchez’s family in North Carolina, and the family told detectives that Sandobal had called them and said Sanchez was fine. When relatives told her detectives had already notified them of Sanchez’s death, Sandobal allegedly hung up. Deputies arrested her April 1 at the Midvale apartment she shared with Sanchez. At that stage, she was accused of obstruction and desecration, not murder. The sheriff’s office then publicly sought Santos Morales, saying he was considered dangerous. He was arrested April 3 at his home in Layton. Those two arrests brought detectives separate statements, and the statements did not match.
Sandobal allegedly told investigators that Sanchez had physically and sexually abused her the night before the body was found and that she contacted Santos Morales afterward. She said Santos Morales came to the apartment and struck Sanchez while Sanchez was asleep, according to court documents. She also allegedly admitted that she and Santos Morales loaded Sanchez’s body into the Honda and left it in Browns Canyon. Santos Morales gave a different account. He told deputies that Sandobal was the person who fatally struck Sanchez and that he only helped dispose of the remains. Sheriff’s spokesperson Skyler Talbot said the two accounts pointed in opposite directions. “Both blame the other,” Talbot said as investigators reviewed the evidence.
The physical evidence recovered in Midvale helped prosecutors build the case beyond the competing accusations. Sandobal allegedly directed detectives to a hammer and a blood-soaked blanket inside her apartment. Investigators said they found the blanket in a closet and the hammer in a laundry basket. Santos Morales allegedly told detectives he cleaned a blood-stained hammer in the bathtub and placed it in the laundry basket. The medical findings tied Sanchez’s death to blunt force trauma. Charging documents also say Sandobal later told investigators she and Santos Morales had planned to kill Sanchez for about a week. The filings do not say whether the hammer has been forensically matched to Sanchez’s wounds, but prosecutors described it as the alleged murder weapon.
The digital evidence brought the alleged plan into sharper focus. Investigators said Sandobal visited a Tylenol PM Extra Strength web page on the morning of March 25. Later that day, she and Santos Morales exchanged messages about whether Sanchez would drink something, whether he was asleep and where to leave a body. Sandobal allegedly told detectives she put six Tylenol capsules into a drink Sanchez consumed. Santos Morales messaged her that he was risking everything and asked whether she knew a faraway mountain area. Sandobal suggested searching online. The texts also showed fear of blame. Santos Morales asked if Sandobal was going to blame him, and prosecutors say that question became important after both suspects later did exactly that.
The presence of children in the apartment added more charges. Court documents say three minor children were inside the home at the time of the alleged killing or its immediate aftermath. Prosecutors charged both defendants with three counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child. The filings do not state what the children saw or heard, and officials have not released their ages. Those counts sit alongside the murder charge but carry their own legal significance because prosecutors allege the killing happened in a home where children were present. The apartment, the car and the rural road now form the central places in the prosecution’s account.
The case is moving through 3rd District Court in Summit County. Both defendants are being held without bail at the Summit County Jail. Prosecutors cited the seriousness of the charges and concerns about flight risk in seeking detention. The next phase is expected to focus on discovery, court scheduling and whether the case proceeds to a preliminary hearing, where prosecutors would present enough evidence for the murder charge to continue. No trial date has been announced in the public reports reviewed for this story. The central question remains whether the state can prove the alleged plan and each defendant’s role in Sanchez’s death.
For investigators, the seven-minute stop remains a key bridge between the apartment and the body. It is the moment prosecutors say the private plan became a public crime scene. As of April 29, Sandobal and Santos Morales remain jailed and presumed innocent while the court case continues.
Author note: Last updated April 29, 2026.