The case against a Carson City man in the disappearance of a missing mother may be on the desk of the prosecutor by Jan. 31, District Attorney Noel Waters said, but he isn't promising he'll have decided what to do by month's end.
"I'm not going to restrict myself to any particular timeline, nor has anyone asked me to restrict myself to any particular timeline," said Waters Wednesday.
Israel "Juan Carlos" Tellez, 36, is believed to have information in the Nov. 10 disappearance of Bertha Anguiano.
Carson City authorities linked Tellez to the woman because they allegedly had an affair.
Police believe foul play has come to the married mother of three who hasn't been heard from since witnesses reported seeing her standing outside of Empire Elementary School talking with a man who matched Tellez description about 8 a.m.
Some 90 minute later, her 3-year-old son was found bloodied and abandoned outside a Dayton grocery store. He allegedly told police he saw Tellez hit his mother with a stick or shovel and she was dead.
Forensic testing found the blood on the boy's clothing and blood found in Tellez' vehicle could possibly belong to Anguiano, according to court documents.
Police say Tellez drove to Salt Lake City, where, when approached by investigators, he allegedly pulled a gun on officers. He is being held in the Salt Lake County Jail and will be tried on two counts of aggravated assault, a count of possession of a dangerous weapon and carrying a concealed dangerous weapons.
During a hearing Tuesday, a judge found probable cause to hold Tellez over for trial.
He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday.
Sheriff Kenny Furlong said countless desert searches have yielded no clues in Anguiano's disappearance and the investigators' main focus now is to prove she can't be anything but dead.
Waters said he could possibly receive the case sometime this month, but without a body to back it up, it makes the case difficult.
"I've talked about it with the Sheriff's Office, in terms of the nature of the case - where you don't have a corpus delicti to deal with and the kinds of problems that presents. Up to this point, I certainly haven't made any decision about what to do. I want them to keep looking," he said.
Contact F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.
