A 33-year-old man was arraigned Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, less than two weeks after prosecutors allege he broke his fiancée’s neck, hid her body in the backseat of her car and then abandoned the vehicle after crashing it into a snowbank in rural Washington.
Jon French was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center Monday night on allegations of second-degree murder and second-degree abuse of a corpse.
A medical examiner determined Jeannie Enyeart, 47, of Portland died from blunt force trauma to the neck, and found a shard from a ceramic mug in her back that had likely gone into her body after she died, court records show.
Enyeart’s son reported her missing to Portland police on Jan. 29 after Skamania County Sheriff’s Office notified him her car had been found at the side of a road and she wasn’t answering her cellphone, court records show.
The Portland Police Bureau issued an alert about Enyeart’s disappearance, noting she was last seen in the area of her home near Northeast Holladay Street and 93rd Avenue on Jan. 27.
Enyeart’s cellphone records showed she had last used her phone at 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 28 near the home she shared with French in Northeast Portland’s Montavilla neighborhood, according to court records.
On Jan. 29, detectives interviewed French, who “expressed disbelief” that his fiancée was missing. He told investigators he had last seen her around 1 p.m. the day before.
Investigators then contacted the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office, who said deputies had found Enyeart’s crashed car on Loop Road in Stevenson, Washington, at 5:19 a.m. on Jan. 29 and towed the vehicle to their facility. They did not know then that Enyeart’s body was hidden in the car.
Sheriff’s officials said French arrived at their office about three hours later to retrieve the car, but deputies would not release it to him because he wasn’t the car’s registered owner, court records show.
Police searched Enyeart’s car on Jan. 31, and detectives found a pile of large items stacked on top of a blanket in the car’s backseat. When they lifted the blanket, they found Enyeart dead on her back, with a shard of a ceramic mug lodged in her back. French’s driver’s license and wallet were on the driver’s side floor of the car, court records show.
Detectives searched the couple’s Montavilla home and found the rest of the shattered mug on the bedroom floor. They also found other broken glassware and holes in the walls and doors, as if someone had punched them. Some of the holes appeared to have been hastily patched, court records show.
Police arrested French on Monday after the autopsy was complete. He told detectives he did not remember driving Enyeart’s car on Jan. 28 or Jan. 29, going to Stevenson or attempting to retrieve his fiancée’s car from the sheriff’s office, according to a probable cause affidavit.
But when detectives showed him a still frame from surveillance footage of the sheriff’s office lobby on Jan. 29, he identified himself in the image, court records show.
An online fundraiser created after Enyeart’s car was found described the woman as a certified nursing assistant and a “very wonderful responsible person.”
Investigators asked anyone with information to contact Detective Brent Christensen at brent.christensen@police.portlandoregon.gov or (503) 823-2087, referencing case number 24-22701.
