New evidence released in Nicole Montalvo murder investigation
LAKE MARY, Fla. - Authorities in Osceola County have released new information in the investigation into a gruesome murder.
Nicole Montalvo's dismembered body was found late last year, days after she was reported missing. Many documents, videos, and images were made public earlier this week, some of which include crime scene evidence, text messages, and interviews with Montalvo's estranged husband, Christopher Otero-Rivera. Detectives are investigating whether Otero-Rivera and his father, Angel Luis Rivera, are responsible for Montalvo's death.
Investigators took hundreds of pictures inside Rivera's home, which sits on the property where some of Montalvo's remains were discovered. Photographs show power tools and weapons that were located inside a shed.
RELATED: Estranged mother-in-law of murdered St. Cloud mom Nicole Montalvo arrested
For the first time, the public is also seeing a video of Otero-Rivera speaking to investigators. The video shows him alone for several minutes before detectives ask him some questions about Montalvo's disappearance. He told investigators he and his family were anxious for her to come home and said his father had received text messages from her prior to her disappearance.
"I don't know if you heard about it, but she sent them a text message, some of them saying that she was leaving," Otero-Rivera explained.
"Like leaving town?" a detective asks.
"We don't know where," Otero-Rivera responds.
Otero-Rivera said Montalvo wrote in the text messages that she was with a friend and was okay.
RELATED: New details in murder arrest of Nicole Montalvo's estranged husband
"Take care of Elijah [Montalvo's son]. I trust you guys," he said.
"Like a forever thing?" a detective asks, inquiring about Montalvo's absence.
"I don't know, something about needing time to herself or something," Otero-Rivera explains.
The Osceola County Sheriff's Office found Montalvo's dismembered body scattered in the backyard of the Rivera home and on another property owned by the family. Although Otero-Rivera and his father have been named as suspects in the case, they have not been formally charged for murder.
The two men remain in jail for failing to report a death and abuse of a dead body. Otero-Rivera also faces charges for violating probation.