On Friday, Jennifer Nara, the former Orange-Osceola associate medical examiner, testified that she had never seen the level of mutilation that she witnessed with regard to the body of St. Cloud woman Nicole Montalvo, who was murdered in 2019.

Montalvo’s remains were discovered in St. Cloud by law enforcement buried on properties owned by the Rivera family. The body was dismembered then burned, some to the point of charring, according to Nara.

“There were many portions of the bones that were not present,” Nara testified during the trial for Montalvo’s killing. “There were a lot of small, little fragments of them, almost like the bones had been put through a wood chipper.”

The medical examiner wasn’t able to determine how Montalvo actually died because of her body’s condition. The cause of death was listed as “homicidal violence of unspecified means” because she was unable to determine how the St. Cloud mother died due to the condition of the body brought to the medical examiner’s office.

The trial of Montalvo’s estranged husband, Christopher Otero-Rivera, and father-in-law, Angel Rivera will continue on Monday at the Osceola County Courthouse. It is expected that the prosecution will present its final witnesses and rest its case on Monday, allowing the defense to take over.

Both Christopher Otero-Rivera and Angel Rivera are charged with second-degree murder, abuse of a body, and evidence tampering. Both men have pleaded not guilty.