Mom identified dead body as her son, Vegas cops say. He was found alive with his dad

When Las Vegas police found the body of a young boy Friday morning and said he was the victim of a homicide, a mother called and said that it was her 8-year-old son.

The mom told police Saturday morning that her son was last seen leaving the house May 27 with his 11-year-old half-brother, Eden Montes, and their father, Jose Montes-Herrera, 37, Las Vegas police said. She and other family members said it was her son after seeing a sketch of the victim released by police.

It ended up being a case of mistaken identification.

Both boys and Montes-Herrera were found alive and safe in Utah, where they had been camping without cell phone service, according to authorities.

“We got confirmation ... that the 8-year-old was in fact alive. What has occurred is that the misidentification that started over in the middle of the night, we are still in the situation right now where we have not identified the child found in Mountain Springs,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lt. Ray Spencer said during a news conference Saturday.

“To all my Family and Friends I like to let you guys know my kids are safe and sound,” Montes-Herrera said in a Facebook post Monday. “We are heading back to Vegas it breaks my heart to know that I was (accused) of hurting my son... I was out camping and in the period of the 12 hours I didn’t have service. I was shocked that people would think I would hurt my son knowing I do everything for them.”

Montes-Herrera told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he needs to “clear my name.”

“I want apologies directly,” Montes-Herrera said. “I haven’t gotten the right apologies that I deserve. To begin with, from the detectives. From Metro (police), from the coroner’s office. A call. A letter. Anything that … I can show my kids these are the apologies I got.”

Las Vegas police said they found the body of an 8-12-year-old boy Friday morning in Mountain Springs near State Route 160. The boy, found lying on a trail, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police released a digitally enhanced photo of the boy in their effort to identify him.

Spencer said they have received missing child tips from California, Nebraska, Montana, Maryland, Iowa and Arizona, but they’ve all been ruled out, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

“We are open to anything,” Spencer said Tuesday. “However, at this point we are still trying to focus our investigation on any children that live or reside in Clark County or Nye County.”

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