Last spring, Rudy and Nancy Montoya were struggling to support their four children on her salary as a bus driver for the Jordan School District. He had been unemployed for three months.
"We burned up all our assets. We had no money. We were about to lose our house," Nancy Montoya said.
Now, they are $62,500 richer after each received a $31,250 reward for helping find missing Salt Lake teenager Elizabeth Smart, missing for nine months after she was kidnapped from her bedroom.
The Salt Lake City mayor's office announced Wednesday that the $250,000 reward was divided up evenly among eight people who had been chosen from a group of 29 nominees.
In addition to the Montoyas, Alvin and Anita Dickerson each also received $31,250. They received the check Wednesday, said Josh Ewing, a spokesman for the mayor.
The Dickersons recognized Smart walking with two adults along State Street in Sandy about the same time as the Montoyas recognized the man from an "America's Most Wanted" television program. The two adults, Brian David Mitchell and his wife Wanda Barzee, are in the Salt Lake County Jail awaiting trial on kidnapping and sexual assault charges.
The afternoon Smart was returned to her family, Rudy and Nancy Montoya were at a copy shop preparing his resume in his search for a new job.
"We hesitated because I didn't think it was an emergency until my husband convinced me it was OK to dial 911," Nancy Montoya said. "We drove over and parked on the sidewalk" to block the path of Mitchell, Barzee, and Smart.
Later that day while driving her bus, Nancy Montoya heard a message from the school district's dispatch center. "The dispatch went on and said, 'Good news, they found Elizabeth alive and well.' And I figured it was my phone call that did that," she said.
The other four reward recipients asked that their names not be released.
The $250,000 reward was raised by private donors, Ewing said. After nominations were completed, "research was done by our city attorney's office. But the final decision was made by the mayor and chief of police. They also consulted with the district attorney," Ewing said.
The criteria for receiving part of the reward was clear: Did the information lead to the safe return of Elizabeth Smart?
"If it did, they were entitled to the reward," Ewing said.
The Montoyas only have one bathroom in their house and plan to use some of the reward money for a second. They are shopping for a new car. Nancy Montoya also would like to help her parents, tithe to her church, and take a trip.
"We're going to Disneyland. We want to go the first week of October," she said. "And we figure, after taxes we're pretty well spent."
E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com