Midvale woman, boyfriend charged in killing, dumping husband in Summit County

Investigators say Reina Chavez-Sandobal and Francisco Santos-Morales drugged Juan Manuel Sanchez with Tylenol PM, bludgeoned him with a hammer while he slept and dumped his body in rural Summit County, leaving residents near Browns Canyon Road and High View Road with a homicide scene tied to a case that began in Midvale.

The victim was identified by authorities as 46-year-old Juan Manuel Sanchez. Deputies responded to the Browns Canyon area near Peoa on March 26, just after 1:30 p.m., after reports of human remains covered in blood. A preliminary autopsy found blunt force trauma to Sanchez’s skull and brain, and investigators later said the body appeared to have been dragged from a roadway before it was abandoned.

Security video from a nearby building showed a vehicle arriving at about 2:20 to 2:22 a.m. on March 26. Investigators said an unknown number of people removed the body from the vehicle and left it in the area before fleeing. That scene, on a remote stretch of Summit County, is now central to the case because detectives believe the killing happened at or near Chavez-Sandobal’s Midvale apartment before the body was hauled to the county’s rural east side.

Court documents say the alleged plan was discussed in text messages on March 25, the day before the body was found. Those messages, investigators said, included a visit by Chavez-Sandobal to a web page for Tylenol PM Extra Strength and talk about finding a remote mountain location to dump the body. Police later recovered a hammer and a blood-covered blanket from Chavez-Sandobal’s apartment after she directed them to the items.

Chavez-Sandobal, 41, and Santos-Morales, 31, were first arrested on abuse or desecration of a dead human body and obstruction of justice allegations. They were later charged with one count of murder, one count of obstruction of justice, one count of abuse or desecration of a human body and three counts of domestic violence criminal homicide in the presence of a child.

Santos-Morales was initially sought as an at-large suspect and was believed to be driving a maroon 2009 Honda Civic with Utah plate 5ETHO before he was arrested in the Davis County and Layton area. Early in the investigation, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office said there was no known threat to public safety. The couple appeared in Summit County court on April 13, with scheduling conferences set for April 17 at 10 a.m.