Woman found with human remains is charged with murder

Prosecutors filed a murder charge Tuesday against a woman found pushing a trash bin that contained human body parts, and detectives are examining whether the remains are those of the woman’s ex-boyfriend, who recently disappeared.

Carmen Montenegro, 51, remained in custody at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga and has refused to cooperate with detectives, authorities said.

Montenegro was found Sunday in Ontario, rolling the trash can along Holmes Avenue, police said.

Investigators and coroner’s staff have confirmed that the remains belong to a man but have yet to determine an identity, said Det. Jeff Crittenden.

At a home on Holmes Avenue where one of Montenegro’s relatives lived, investigators found evidence that suggested the body had been kept there, perhaps buried in the yard, authorities said.

After Montenegro’s arrest, detectives began an exhaustive search of the home and yard, Crittenden said. By Monday afternoon, work tents covered much of the backyard as investigators excavated some soil to check for other body parts or evidence, he said.

Montenegro apparently was asking relatives who live on the street for help getting rid of the body and had also tried to leave it in front of a nearby home, the detective said.

“She was trying to dispose of a body,” Crittenden said.

The boyfriend, who was last seen by relatives on May 1, was reported as a missing person to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, according to Crittenden.

The former boyfriend’s sister-in-law said the man met Montenegro online about a year ago and the two had lived together on and off. She said he lived in Diamond Bar and described him as a “veteran, a loner, but a great and generous guy.”

richard.winton@latimes.com