Summit County couple charged in Browns Canyon murder, body found in bloodied scene

A Summit County couple now faces first-degree murder charges after deputies found Manuel Juan Sanchez, 46, dead in Browns Canyon on a scene described in court records as covered in blood and marked by an apparent traumatic head wound. Prosecutors allege Reina Chavez-Sandobal, 41, and Francisco Alejandro Santos-Morales, 31, plotted to kill Sanchez and dumped his body near Browns Canyon Road and High View Road, a rural stretch near Peoa that quickly became the center of a multi-agency homicide investigation.

Deputies responded March 26, 2026, after reports of human remains covered in blood near the road intersection. The Summit County Sheriff’s Office identified the victim as Sanchez, whose name has also appeared in reporting as Juan Manuel Sanchez and Juan Michael Sanchez. A preliminary autopsy and later reporting said the cause of death was blunt force trauma. One account said investigators believed a hammer was used and that a hammer and bloody blanket were found at an apartment in Midvale, where investigators believe Sanchez was likely killed before his body was moved to Browns Canyon.

Chavez-Sandoval was arrested April 1, 2026, and Santos-Morales was arrested April 3 in Layton after authorities sought public help to locate him. Before the murder case was filed, both were booked on suspicion of abuse or desecration of a dead human body and obstruction of justice. The Summit County Attorney’s Office later charged each with murder, a first-degree felony, and obstruction of justice, turning what began as a grisly body discovery into one of the county’s most serious open criminal cases.

The case stretches across Summit, Salt Lake and Davis counties, with investigators tying the Browns Canyon dump site to a Midvale apartment and a Layton arrest. That footprint matters in a county where canyon roads are part of daily life, from rural access routes to recreation and travel between communities. A bloodied body left in Browns Canyon raised safety fears well beyond the immediate scene, especially while one suspect remained at large. The allegations now move into the court system, where affidavits, autopsy findings and other evidence will be tested against the defendants’ right to challenge them in open proceedings.