8th Death Tied to Boardinghouse Murders; Man Held

A body stuffed in a makeshift casket and dumped in a river was added to the list Saturday of seven victims dug up in a boardinghouse yard and an alleged accessory was arrested in the case.

Police announced the arrest of Ismael Carrasco Florez, saying that he built the pine box in which the body of an elderly man was placed and dumped in the Sacramento River nearly three years ago.

The operator of the boardinghouse, Dorothea Montalvo Puente, 59, has been charged with one count of murder. Police say she helped Florez dump the body in the Sacramento River.

Police, who have unearthed seven bodies from the yard of Puente’s boardinghouse, believe she killed her elderly, down-and-out tenants for their Social Security checks.

The Police Department issued a brief statement Saturday and would give out no further details of Florez’s arrest. Florez’s age was unavailable.

A farm worker found a decomposed body on Jan. 1, 1986, near the town of Verona. The unidentified body, wrapped in plastic, was that of an elderly man.

On Friday, police said they were working with Sutter County sheriff’s deputies concerning the body because of similarities in the way it and the seven bodies unearthed in Puente’s boardinghouse yard were wrapped.

Puente is in County Jail charged with the murder of Alvaro (Bert) Montoya, 52, whose disappearance prompted the police search that led to the discovery of the bodies. Prosecutors have said she also will be charged with the death of a second man whose body was unearthed, Benjamin Fink, 55, and possibly with others.

Police Capt. Michael O’Kane on Friday identified two more bodies found in shallow graves at Puente’s boardinghouse: Vera Martin, 65, and Dorothy Miller, who had been referred to Puente’s boardinghouse by a social worker. Miller’s age was not available.

O’Kane said no cause of death has been found for either victim, and coroner’s toxicology reports will not be available for at least two weeks.