A 74-year-old former Bonner County man who has been a person of interest in a homicide investigation and who fled the area prior to his marijuana grow sentencing nearly 30 years ago was arrested Friday at his Georgia home, according to the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office.
James E. Montz has been a person of interest in the disappearance of his stepfather, Michael Haire, after Haire was reported missing in 1993, the sheriff’s office said on its Facebook page. Sheriff’s office detectives and the Idaho State Police were investigating the cold case and learned Montz was living in Georgia under an “assumed name.”
The U.S. Marshals Service and local Georgia authorities arrested Montz at his Thomasville, Georgia, home for his Bonner County warrant. Montz was convicted of growing marijuana in 1994, according to the sheriff’s office.
Montz was scheduled to be sentenced June 12, 1995, according to the Idaho Court Portal and a June 13, 1995, Spokesman-Review story, but he never showed up to court, the newspaper reported.
Authorities and prosecutors had said Montz was a risk to flee and that Montz feared the homicide investigation could result in a murder charge against him, according to the newspaper.
Montz was allowed to post bail, turn over his passport and work in Moscow. He was supposed to check in with authorities there every day, but the last time he checked in was June 3, 1995.
“He (Montz) has always been a prime murder suspect, and the investigation is still under way,” Bonner County Sheriff Chip Roos said at the time.
Montz was arrested in September 1994 for growing 80 marijuana plants after an informant led police to the growing operation on Rapid Lightning Road near Sandpoint, according to The Spokesman-Review.
The informant also connected Montz to the disappearance of Haire, Montz’s 50-year-old stepfather. Haire disappeared in June 1993 after a fight with his wife, The Spokesman-Review reported.
Roos said at the time he believed Montz shot Haire before burning his body in a kiln, a type of oven used for processing materials, like turning clay objects into tiles and bricks.
A large kiln was found on Montz’s property during the drug raid, and authorities looked through ash and dirt for Haire’s bones and teeth, according to the newspaper. The bones they found turned out not to be human, Roos said.
Ash from the kiln was sent to labs at the time for DNA testing to see if any of it was human matter. Other items that were unearthed were examined by forensic anthropologists.
Using advances in forensic DNA testing, detectives are working with forensic labs to process evidence originally collected from the scene, according to the sheriff’s office. Montz will be extradited to Bonner County to be sentenced on his manufacturing marijuana conviction.
Anyone with information about the investigation is asked to contact the sheriff’s office at (208) 263-8417.
A 74-year-old former Bonner County man who has been a person of interest in a homicide investigation and who fled the area prior to his marijuana grow sentencing nearly 30 years ago was arrested Friday at his Georgia home, according to the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office. Read More
