The disappearance of a missing Nevada woman has turned into an investigation of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, kidnapping and obstruction of justice, new court documents state.
Bertha Anguiano, 33, a Carson City, Nev., video store owner, has been missing since Nov. 10. Nevada authorities have linked Juan Carlos Tellez to Anguiano because they allegedly had an affair. Tellez and acquaintance Joaquin Barcelo were arrested Nov. 21 in Salt Lake County after Tellez allegedly pulled a gun from his waistband as police approached him.
An officer hit him with an unmarked car before any shots were fired, court documents state.
Tellez has a sister who lives in Salt Lake City, giving him reason to come to the state, according to court documents.
According to a search warrant affidavit filed Wednesday in Utah's 3rd District Court, blood was discovered on the roof, right rear passenger door and rear compartment of a blue sports-utility vehicle Tellez drove. Officers obtained oral swabs and a blood sample from Tellez "for elimination purposes."
Salt Lake County sheriff's detective Courtney Nelson said the swab and blood were obtained Dec. 3, but forensics analysis will not be performed in Utah. "We're releasing it to Carson City," he said.
Last week, a search warrant affidavit also filed in Utah's 3rd District Court stated that police learned Anguiano was missing "under suspicious circumstances" Nov. 10 when they found Anguiano's 3-year-old son alone at a Smith's grocery store in Carson County, Nev., with a bloodstain on his clothing.
The bloodstain was tested. "The results of that testing indicated the profile of a female related to" the boy, the affidavit states.
Carson County Sheriff's Sgt. Bob White would not go into detail about the bloodstain when contacted by the Deseret Morning News.
The 3-year-old boy told officers at the grocery store that Tellez hit his mother in the head with a wooden object or shovel, wrapped her in a blanket and placed her in the back of a blue truck. Officers are looking into the boy's story, White said.
Search and rescue teams in three northwest Nevada counties have searched for Anguiano. They're focusing along a 60-mile stretch of U.S. 50 between Carson City and Fallon, Nev., where Tellez rented a hotel room, White said.
"He lived in Carson City for about a year, then he went to Fallon, then to Salt Lake City," White said.
E-MAIL: lhancock@desnews.com