CATHLEEN ALLISON/NEVADA APPEAL Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong answers media questions about a woman missing since Monday, at the Sheriff's Department in Carson City, Nev. on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2003. Bertha Anguiano, 33, has been missing since she dropped her 6-year-old son at school on Monday morning.
A missing Carson City mother and the man police suspect she is with could be in Northern Nevada, Sheriff Kenny Furlong said Friday.
"New leads are suggesting he may still be in the local area. Most likely he's still in Nevada," Furlong told a throng of reporters Friday afternoon, including a crew from America's Most Wanted television program. "I believe we will have contact with him soon."
Thursday night, Furlong reported Bertha Anguiano, 33, could be headed to Salt Lake City in the company of Juan Carlos Tellez, 36, the man with whom she was allegedly having an extramarital affair.
Anguiano disappeared Monday morning after dropping off her 6-year-old son at Empire Elementary School. She was last seen standing in the school parking lot with an unidentified man.
Some 90-minutes later, her 3-year-old son, Andrew, was found bloodied and clutching a dollar bill 15 miles from home in a grocery store parking lot in Dayton.
He told police a man named Juan had struck him on the head with an object. He also said he'd seen the man strike his mother, and that his mother was dead.
Witnesses, including Anguiano's husband, reported she was probably having an affair with Tellez. He frequently visited her at her video store, La Casita Video, on Woodside Drive, and was seen driving around town in Anguiano's Ford Tempo, which police found parked at the school hours after she was reported missing.
Furlong said because the couple may have been lovers, it's likely Anguiano went with Tellez willingly, but the 3-year-old's statements that he'd been hurt and seen his mother hurt lead investigators to assume she is in danger.
"The focus of this investigation is her welfare," he said. "I'm hoping (Tellez) is still in the area. I'm hoping he's watching and I'm hoping he'll come forward to us."
Carson City Search and Rescue volunteers are expected to scour the remote areas of the county today in hopes of turning up some clues as to Anguiano's whereabouts, Sgt. Bob White said Friday.
A search in Lyon County on Thursday was fruitless, Furlong said.
Tellez and Anguiano may be in a royal blue 1992 GMC Jimmy truck bearing Nevada license plate 511 PTF.
"If people do spot a truck like that, take a second look and if it's suspicious, call us," Furlong said.
