Search for woman focusing on Lyon, Churchill counties

RENO -- Reno police have followed a trail of cell phone calls that lead them to believe their search for a woman who has been missing since her 3-year-old son was found abandoned in a Salt Lake City store may eventually be found in Lyon or Churchill counties.

And they're convinced they're looking for a body.

Lyle Montgomery, the husband of the boy's mother, 28-year-old Jeannette Corpuz, was in those areas at the end of January, two days after the boy was found at the ShopKo store in Salt Lake City.

Montgomery, 42, is accused of leaving the boy there, and police are calling him a suspect in his wife's disappearance, Sgt. Doug McPartland told the a Reno newspaper.

"Its our opinion that she is dead," McPartland said.

Montgomery's lawyer, Scott Freeman, said Thursday the police investigation would exonerate his client.

"I hope she hasn't come to harm at the hands of anyone else," Freeman said. "She didn't come to harm at the hands of Mr. Montgomery."

Police inferred from cellular phone records that Montgomery was in Yerington, Dayton or Wellington in Lyon County, and in Churchill County on Jan. 27-28.

An affidavit in support of a search warrant for the cell phone records also details a conversation Montgomery had with a Reno detective on Feb. 3 after he had been committed to a Reno hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

Montgomery told the detective that Corpuz had left for the San Francisco Bay area. He said he had thrown away the bed from the master bedroom "because it was covered in blood" and had taken it to the Sutro Street dump.

Police doubt Montgomery's statement and have not searched the Lockwood landfill, where the bed would have been taken from the Sutro dump, McPartland said.

An acquaintance told police that Montgomery watched the Super Bowl at home in Reno on Jan. 26, the day after the boy was found in Salt Lake City.

Also on Super Bowl Sunday, Montgomery was seen on surveillance video at a Home Depot store buying three rolls of plastic, five packages of cotton cord, a wheelbarrow, pick, shovel, gas can, saw and gloves, according to the affidavit.

Montgomery is being held under $2.5 million bail awaiting trial on charges of assault and false imprisonment in connection with an Oct. 26 incident in which he allegedly held a gun to his wife's head.

Although police are calling Montgomery a suspect in Corpuz's disappearance and have a positive DNA match between Corpuz and blood found at Montgomery's home, Montgomery has not been charged with murder.