Authorities in California have arrested a San Bernardino woman who was allegedly pushing a 30-gallon garbage can full of dismembered human body parts down a suburban street Sunday.
"I can't comment on the condition of the body because I am not sure of the exact extent of the injuries. I do know that it was dismembered [and] it appears to be a homicide," Detective Jeff Crittenden of the City of Ontario Police Department told The Huffington Post.
Carmen Montenegro, 51, was caught with the wheeled container full of human remains Sunday afternoon, after several concerned neighbors contacted police and reported "either seeing the body [parts] or ... smelling [them]," Crittenden said.
According to the detective, investigators suspect Montenegro disinterred the remains from a home she used to live at in the 700 block of North Holmes Avenue, which is located about 200 yards from where she was arrested.
"She no longer lived there, [but] apparently she used to reside there," Crittenden said.
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Montenegro was booked at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, where she is being held on suspicion of murder. The suspect has been uncooperative with investigators, police said.
"She is not making any comments. She was brought in and she opted not to speak to the investigators," Crittenden said.
According to the San Bernardino Sheriff-Coroner's Department, the victim was a male of unknown age or race. Investigators are still trying to determine how the man died, a spokesman for the sheriff-coroner's department said.
Crittenden said that some of the man's remains were missing from inside the trash can, but he declined to elaborate. Investigators conducted an extensive search of the North Holmes Avenue property on Monday. They also excavated portions of the backyard but are not yet commenting on what, if anything, they found there.
Speaking with KTLA-TV Channel 5, a neighbor who identified herself as a cousin of Montenegro said that the woman had come to her home with the body on Sunday and asked for help disposing of it. The woman told the news station she did not know the victim's identity.
Crittenden declined to comment on any other aspects of the case, citing the ongoing investigation. "The detectives are still working on [it]," he said.
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