Jeannie Enyeart vanished in January 2024, beginning a search that became a homicide investigation and a case against her fiancé.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Before Jeannie Enyeart’s name appeared in court filings and a homicide prosecution, her family stood outside her Northeast Portland home asking for help finding a mother, daughter, sister and new grandmother who had suddenly stopped answering her phone.
More than two years later, that family watched the criminal case end with a 16½-year prison sentence for Enyeart’s fiancé, Jon Pharris Ray French. French, 35, was sentenced Sept. 14 after pleading no contest to first-degree manslaughter and guilty to second-degree abuse of a corpse. He had initially faced a second-degree murder charge. The plea avoided the trial that had been scheduled for October and established the final legal resolution in Enyeart’s death, which the medical examiner attributed to blunt trauma to her neck.
Enyeart was 47 when she disappeared. During the search in early February 2024, relatives told KATU that she was a mother of two and a certified nursing assistant who worked in hospice care. She had recently become a grandmother. Her mother, Helen Eskelson, described caring for family and other people as part of Enyeart’s character from childhood. Her son, Antonio Reyes Enyeart, said she had always been present for her family. That history of steady contact was one reason her silence was immediately alarming.
The family said Enyeart was last seen near her home around Northeast Holladay Street and Northeast 93rd Avenue on Jan. 27, 2024. Relatives said she and French were preparing to move and had planned to travel to Vancouver, Washington, to retrieve belongings from a storage unit. Her daughter had spoken with her and did not report anything unusual in the conversation. Then the calls stopped. On Jan. 29, her son contacted Portland police because he had been unable to reach her for two days and considered that highly unusual, according to prosecutors and later court-document reporting.
Even before the family knew what had happened, one piece of Enyeart’s life had already surfaced in another state. Her Kia Soul had become stuck in snow on a rural road near Stevenson, Washington. Court records reported by KATU said a Skamania County road worker found French with the vehicle on the morning of Jan. 29. French appeared impaired and asked for transportation to a cousin’s nearby home. The cousin later told investigators that French arrived wearing only a light jacket, appeared to have injuries on his hands and offered no clear explanation for why he had been traveling in those conditions.
Back in Portland, French initially presented himself as another person concerned about Enyeart’s disappearance. He made public appeals for her return on social media and spoke with investigators. Prosecutors said he told police that he had last seen Enyeart on Jan. 28 and that her car should be parked at their shared home. Court documents later revealed that he also floated another explanation, telling officers that a drug dealer named “Julius” may have kidnapped Enyeart or that she might have gone with him voluntarily. Investigators were already tracing a different path because the Kia was not in Portland at all.
Authorities determined that French had been driving Enyeart’s vehicle when it ended up in the Washington snowbank. When investigators searched the car, they found Enyeart’s body beneath a moving blanket and other items in the back seat. The discovery changed the family’s public search into a homicide case. The autopsy concluded that Enyeart died from blunt trauma to the neck. Investigative records reported by local news outlets said a piece of ceramic associated with a broken coffee mug was also recovered from her body. Detectives found broken mug pieces when they searched the master bedroom of the couple’s Portland home.
Police continued testing French’s version of events against witness statements and other evidence. Neighbors said the couple had argued frequently and reported last seeing Enyeart in a vehicle with French on Jan. 27. Surveillance footage from a Vancouver cannabis shop showed French arriving in Enyeart’s car the next night, according to the court filings. Investigators also obtained a statement from one of French’s former girlfriends, who said he knew the logging roads near his cousin’s property and had previously spoken about using them if he needed to hide something. The statement was an allegation contained in the investigative record, not a separate criminal conviction.
French was arrested Feb. 5, 2024. The arrest came the same day relatives were publicly appealing for information about Enyeart. What followed was a lengthy court process rather than a quick resolution. French was charged with second-degree murder constituting domestic violence and abuse of a corpse. Questions concerning his fitness for trial became part of the proceedings, and he was ultimately found competent in June 2025, KATU reported. By 2026, prosecutors were describing the vehicle evidence, witness accounts and other findings in court as the case moved toward a scheduled October trial.
Enyeart’s family also publicly described problems in the relationship. Her brother Mychal Enyeart told The Oregonian that French could become angry and said his sister had called off their planned wedding and was preparing to leave. He believed the breakup was connected to her death. That belief came from the family; the district attorney’s office did not identify an official motive in its announcement of French’s plea or sentence. Prosecutors instead focused their public account on the timeline: the missing-person report, French’s statements, the crashed vehicle, the body recovered from the back seat and the eventual arrest.
The case changed sharply on Sept. 4, 2026. Rather than proceed to trial on the murder charge, French entered a no-contest plea to first-degree manslaughter in Multnomah County Circuit Court. He pleaded guilty to second-degree abuse of a corpse. The pleas meant the state would not have to present its entire case to a jury and witnesses would not have to testify at a murder trial. Prosecutors Todd Jackson and Ryan Solomon handled the case, and the district attorney’s office credited Portland homicide detectives Brent Christensen and Scott Broughton for their investigative work.
Ten days later, Enyeart’s family returned to court for sentencing. Her sister, Kristin, spoke about the emotional damage left by the killing, describing a deep pain that had affected her happiness and sense of well-being, according to KXL. Enyeart’s friend Amy Nickerson addressed French as well and made clear that she did not forgive him. French was given the opportunity to make a statement but chose not to speak. The court then imposed the 16½-year prison sentence announced by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.
The sentence closed the criminal prosecution, but Enyeart’s relatives have continued to emphasize the life that preceded the case. She had worked in caregiving and hospice services, and her family later created a scholarship for nursing students at Clackamas Community College. That effort stands apart from the details that dominated the investigation — the snowbound car, competing stories to police and evidence collected from the home. French is now serving the prison term imposed Sept. 14, and the October murder trial that had once been scheduled will not take place because of his plea.
Author note: Last updated October 20, 2026.