A 51-year-old San Bernardino woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after she was discovered on a city street pushing a trash can containing a man’s dismembered body, Ontario police said Monday.

Carmen Montenegro was taken into custody after Ontario residents in the 700 block of Holmes Avenue spotted her about 3 p.m. Sunday pushing a foul-smelling trash bin and alerted police, Det. Jeff Crittenden said. Body parts were found inside the bin, he said.

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

Montenegro apparently was trying to get relatives who live on the street to get rid of the body and had also tried to leave it in front of a nearby home, he said.


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

The victim has not been identified.

Police detectives and San Bernardino County coroner’s investigators are still trying to determine when, where and how the victim was killed, Crittenden said.

The daughter of a homeowner related to Montenegro told a KTLA-TV Channel 5 reporter that the suspect is her cousin and that she came to the house Sunday with the body asking for help disposing of it. The woman said she did not know the victim’s identity.


richard.winton@latimes.com