Oxnard Yard Is Searched for Body of Woman

Hoping to find the body of a 20-year-old woman missing since 1992, investigators used search dogs Saturday to scour the backyard of the Oxnard house where Katrina Elizabeth Montgomery was last seen.

Authorities have been looking for the former Ventura High School student since her disappearance from a rowdy Thanksgiving weekend party on Azalea Street in Oxnard more than five years ago.

Montgomery, a Santa Monica College student at the time, had returned to the county to visit friends and reportedly was last seen leaving the party at 5 a.m. on Nov. 28, 1992. Her bloodstained pickup truck was found hours later in the Angeles National Forest.

Police had no luck in the case until a series of recent breaks landed three suspects in jail, two of them on unrelated charges. Investigators from the Ventura County district attorney’s office and the Los Angeles Police Department now believe Montgomery’s body may be buried in the backyard of the house where the party occurred.

Investigators refused to comment on the case Saturday, but sources have said authorities plan to search the house and three other sites in Ventura County.

The family that bought the Azalea Street house in 1993--not knowing of Montgomery’s disappearance--was unavailable for comment.

But Saturday morning’s search caused a neighborhood stir. Many peered out their windows to watch as detectives and their search dogs probed the yard.

“It’s scary. You never thought you’d be so close to something like that,” said next-door neighbor Chantil Shrauger, 14. “I hope they find her. It’s sad for the family, but at least they’ll know.”