Inset: Jeannie Enyeart (Portland police). Background: Jon French (KATU).
An Oregon man accused of killing his fiancee with a coffee mug and placing her body in the back of her car and driving away in the middle of a winter storm before crashing into a snow bank has entered a plea.
Jon French, 35, pleaded no contest to manslaughter and guilty to abuse of a corpse in the death of 47-year-old Jeannie Enyeart. He was originally facing a murder charge.
Neighbors last saw Enyeart on Jan. 27, 2024, in the area of Northeast Holiday Street and Northeast 93rd Avenue in northeast Portland. During the missing person case, family said she and French were moving and had been heading to a storage unit in Vancouver to pick up items, according to local ABC affiliate KATU.
She was reported missing and French at first played the role of a concerned loved one. He wrote several posts on his Facebook page begging for her return.
"You are my queen," he wrote in one.
"Jeannie Noel Enyeart please come home please," he wrote in another.
French told cops that he believed Enyeart was kidnapped by a drug dealer.
Two days after she disappeared, deputies in Skamania County recovered an abandoned Kia Soul stuck in a snowbank in Stevenson, Washington state, about 40 miles away from Portland. The car was towed but cops initially did not realize there was a body inside.
KATU, citing an affidavit, reported cops searched the car and discovered Enyeart's body in the backseat under blankets and other items. A medical examiner later determined she died of blunt force trauma. The autopsy also recovered a ceramic shard from a coffee mug.
Investigators found the broken coffee mug in the master bedroom of the couple's home where suspected blood covered the walls. They also reportedly spoke with a road worker who spotted French stuck in the snow. French appeared under the influence and was wearing only a light jacket. He asked the worker to take him to his cousin's house nearby.
One of French's ex-girlfriends reportedly told cops that French had said he could make something disappear as he knew the logging roads near his cousin's house well.
French's social media posts feigning concern did not fool her family. Her brother told the Oregonian newspaper that French was a "walking red flag" who would fly into a rage over even the smallest of things. Neighbors told them they often heard the couple arguing.
Cops arrested French a few days after recovering Enyeart's remains.
The victim's mother addressed French at his arraignment.
"Look at me, Jon. Why?" she said, according to local CBS affiliate KPIC. "You came to our home. We ate together. We played games together. You swore to me on how much you loved her and I thanked you for that. Is this how you express your love to Jeannie, your queen, like trash? May God have mercy on your pathetic soul."
Her brother Mychal Enyeart said French killed her because she called off the wedding and was going to move out.
He described his sister as "incredibly softhearted" and said she was excited about the recent birth of a grandson.
"She wasn't an overly silly person in general, but she loved funny things – it's what made her happy," he told the Oregonian. "If anybody's having a hard day, she would look to find something funny to turn that into happiness for them."
French faces at least 10 years in prison when he's sentenced Sept. 14.
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