Investigators believe the bodies of missing Deer Lodge mom and son have been found.
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Sheriff Scott Howard said the bodies, believed to be those of 79-year-old Beverly Giannonatti and 57-year-old Gregory Giannonatti, were found Sunday night.
The Giannonattis’ mysterious disappearance began about a week after a house cleaner discovered a gold bar, estimated as being worth around a half a million dollars, inside the home of Beverly’s late ex-husband on October 19.
An investigation is ongoing, but 53-year-old David Wayne Nelson, who is considered a “person of high interest”, has been taken into custody while investigators conduct autopsies.
Officials say the bodies were found in a wooded area in the foothills on private land.
Beverly was having her late husband’s home remodeled before moving back in.
The case is a homicide investigation, Howard said.
Police then visited Mr Giannonatti’s home and found it to be abandoned too, with his television still on and a slow cooker that had been operating for days.
Nelson is being held without bail in possible connection with the deaths but appeared in court on Monday after violating parole from a 1999 conviction of kidnapping and robbery. Officers went to her home where dogs could be heard inside barking.
The sheriff was assisted by agents with the Montana Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “It’s awful for people to fear that someone is running around who is a danger to others”. Wolff struggled while Nelson held a gun on Frischmon and demanded money from the two.
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The Conweb site also shows Nelson was convicted of burglary in Beaverhead County in 1981.
