VIRGINIA CITY — A southwestern Montana man has pleaded not guilty to charges that he killed his girlfriend last July and buried her body on a ranch in Madison County.
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports 56-year-old Stanley Gordon Bernardini pleaded not guilty on June 17 to deliberate homicide and evidence tampering in the suspected death of 37-year-old Michelle Sorrows. Her body has not been found.
Court records say Sorrows was last seen in Ennis in July 2018 and that the couple had a volatile relationship.
An informant told investigators that Bernardini killed Sorrows in his apartment and used a backhoe to bury her on a remote part of the ranch.
Investigators found human bloodstains and evidence of an effort to clean up blood in Bernardini’s apartment.
He remains in custody with his bail set at $100,000.