Authorities say Reina Chavez Sandobal told relatives her husband was fine after detectives had already identified his body.
PARK CITY, Utah — A woman’s call to her husband’s out-of-state relatives became a turning point in a Utah murder investigation that now charges her and her boyfriend with killing him.
Reina Chavez Sandobal, 41, and Francisco Santos Morales, 31, are accused of murdering 46-year-old Manuel Juan Sanchez, then leaving his body on High View Road in the Browns Canyon area of Summit County. Prosecutors filed first-degree murder charges April 9, adding counts of obstruction of justice, abuse or desecration of a dead body and domestic violence in the presence of children. The allegations show a case built not around one confession, but around family contact, digital records, security video, an autopsy and statements that conflict on the central act.
The family contact came April 1, nearly a week after deputies found Sanchez’s body. Investigators had identified Sanchez through fingerprints and contacted relatives in North Carolina. Court documents say Sandobal called those relatives and told them Sanchez was fine and that they should not be concerned about his welfare. The family already knew detectives had reported Sanchez dead. When they told Sandobal that, she allegedly hung up. The call mattered because it suggested someone close to Sanchez was trying to control what his family believed after his body had been found. Deputies arrested Sandobal that day at the Midvale apartment where she and Sanchez had lived.
By then, the death investigation had already begun in Summit County. Deputies responded March 26 to a rural area near Browns Canyon Road and High View Road after receiving a report of human remains covered in blood. Sanchez was found with a head injury, and investigators said evidence showed he had been dragged after being removed from a vehicle. The Utah Office of the Medical Examiner later determined that Sanchez died from blunt force trauma to the skull and brain. Officials said the manner of death was homicide. The body scene gave investigators a location, a time frame and a cause of death, but the case soon moved west to Salt Lake County, where Sanchez had lived with Sandobal.
Sandobal’s first detailed account placed the killing on Santos Morales. She allegedly told detectives that Sanchez had abused her late March 25 and that she contacted her boyfriend afterward. She said Santos Morales came to the apartment and struck Sanchez while Sanchez was asleep. She also allegedly admitted she and Santos Morales loaded Sanchez’s body into her Honda Civic and drove to Browns Canyon, where they left him. Investigators said Sandobal told them a hammer and a blood-soaked blanket could be found in her apartment. Detectives recovered the hammer from a laundry basket and the blanket from a closet. Sandobal’s three children were in the apartment at the time, according to the charges.
Santos Morales gave investigators a competing version after his April 3 arrest at his Layton home. He said Sandobal was the one who fatally struck Sanchez and that he helped move the body afterward, according to court records. He allegedly admitted cleaning a blood-stained hammer in the bathtub and hiding it in the laundry basket. He also allegedly admitted helping conceal Sanchez’s body. Sheriff’s spokesperson Skyler Talbot described the conflict as a direct split. Sandobal blamed Santos Morales, and Santos Morales blamed Sandobal. The filings do not resolve that dispute through either defendant’s statement alone. Instead, prosecutors point to the alleged planning and shared acts before and after Sanchez’s death.
The alleged planning is laid out through messages from March 25. Investigators said Sandobal looked up Tylenol PM Extra Strength that morning. Later, Santos Morales asked whether Sanchez would drink it, and Sandobal said Sanchez was already drinking it. She later allegedly told investigators that she crushed six Tylenol capsules into Sanchez’s juice. The messages continued through the evening. Santos Morales asked whether Sandobal knew of a faraway mountain area. Sandobal said they could search online. They discussed mountain, lake and river options. He asked whether she would blame him. She wrote that she felt free. He replied that he was doing it all for her, according to charging documents.
The messages also gave investigators times to compare with cameras. Sandobal allegedly told Santos Morales that Sanchez had finished the juice, was asleep and was snoring. She sent an image and audio files, according to prosecutors. Santos Morales later messaged that his taxi had arrived and then said he was outside the apartment. Around 1:04 a.m. March 26, security footage allegedly showed Sandobal and Santos Morales carrying what appeared to be Sanchez’s lifeless body from the apartment to a maroon Honda Civic. Around 2:22 a.m., another camera near Browns Canyon Road and High View Road showed a vehicle stopping for seven minutes while people appeared to remove a body. Deputies later stopped Sandobal near Kimball Junction for a minor traffic violation.
The initial charges after the arrests were narrower. Sandobal and Santos Morales were first booked on accusations tied to obstruction and desecration of a body. At that point, public reports said neither had been charged with killing Sanchez. The case changed after prosecutors reviewed the charging package and filed murder counts in 3rd District Court. The new counts accuse both defendants of responsibility for Sanchez’s death, even though each allegedly pointed to the other as the person who struck him. Prosecutors also charged criminal homicide related to domestic violence in the presence of children, reflecting the allegation that children were in the home during the killing or immediate events around it.
The case highlights a difference between investigative blame and legal responsibility. Each defendant’s statement, as described in court records, tries to separate participation in moving a body from responsibility for killing Sanchez. Prosecutors appear to argue that the evidence shows more than cleanup. They cite the Tylenol search, the messages about the drink, the request for a taxi, the discussion of a remote place, the apartment video, the Browns Canyon video and the recovered hammer and blanket. The filings do not say whether either defendant has entered a plea to all charges, and no public trial date has been announced. Both remain presumed innocent unless convicted.
Sandobal and Santos Morales are being held without bail at the Summit County Jail. Prosecutors cited the severity of the charges and flight concerns in detention filings. The next stage is expected to include evidence exchanges, hearings and decisions about whether the case will proceed toward trial. For Sanchez’s relatives, the case has already moved from a call saying he was fine to court filings alleging he had been dead for days.
Currently, the prosecution stands on a record of messages, video and recovered evidence, while the two defendants remain divided on who struck Sanchez. The court will now decide whether the state can carry the murder case forward.
Author note: Last updated April 29, 2026.