It seemed like Beverly Giannonatti had come across a stroke of luck, or at the very least, a small fortune. While a cleaning woman was going through the Deer Lodge, Mont., house of her late ex-husband in preparation for Beverly to move back in, she discovered a 25-pound bar of gold. Its worth was estimated at $480,000, a bounty indeed in a small town where the median income hovers around $30,000. Hearing the news from her cleaning lady, the curly-haired 79-year-old went to the house immediately, presumably to retrieve the uncovered treasure.
That was on Oct. 19. Ten days later, Beverly and her 57-year-old son, Greg, vanished without a trace. ADVERTISING
The last time that either of them had been seen was Oct. 28, the Montana Standard reports, when Beverly was spotted at a local restaurant with a Caucasian male of about 60. Greg was seen “in an apparent hurry” driving away from his home in a white 1995 Toyota Camry.
Neither of them had been heard from since. Then on Monday, Powell County Sheriff Scott Howard announced that the bodies of the mother and son had been found Sunday night in a dump site in the county, the Montana Standard reported. An unidentified person of interest has been arrested on a 72-hour investigative hold, Howard said at a news conference.
The case has left the tight-knit community reeling.
“The valley has gone from frantic to just sad,” a friend of Beverly told the Montana Standard before the bodies were found. “Who would kidnap such a lovely lady?”
Poster Comment:
Most gold is stolen by the grandchildren of the person who bought it. Maybe not in this case. But in a small town the victims know you by sight.