Jon French is seen in court Feb. 6, 2024, after authorities said he murdered his fiancee, Jeannie Enyeart, seen here in the inset. (Inset: Portland Police Bureau; screenshot: KGW)
An Oregon man who took to social media and pleaded for the public’s help in finding his missing fiancee is now charged with murdering her.
“Heading over to the house to talk to the detective and hand them my phone’s,” Jon French, 33, wrote in a Facebook post on Monday, the day that Portland cops arrested him for allegedly killing Jeannie Enyeart, 47. “Please come home Jeannie Noel Enyeart.”
The victim’s family said they always suspected him in her Jan. 27 disappearance, according to Portland NBC affiliate KGW. Neighbors, they said, told them that French physically abused Enyeart throughout their two-year relationship. The family chewed him out when the court let them speak at his arraignment on Tuesday.
Enyeart’s mother, Helen Eskelson, demanded that her look at her. He did not, instead fixing his gaze down.
“Look at me, Jon. Why?” she said, according to Roseburg 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.”
Portland cops said that neighbors last saw Enyeart on Jan. 27 in the area of Northeast Holiday Street and Northeast 93rd Avenue. 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 Portland ABC affiliate KATU.
“You are my queen,” French wrote Saturday. “Please contact any of us.”
Officers said they found her vehicle in Skamania County, Washington.
They said the vehicle had been crashed.
“Given the circumstances, both detectives and family are concerned about Enyeart’s well-being,” officers wrote during the missing person case.
According to Skamania County deputies, they were contacted Jan. 29 about the vehicle stuck in a snow berm in Stevenson, Washington. Portland cops later told them the abandoned vehicle was linked to Enyeart. Investigators later recovered her body from the vehicle.
“This case was complicated and information was restricted for dissemination to ensure case integrity,” Skamania County Sheriff Summer Scheyer said. “Difficult decisions were made to withhold details in the case as our sole mission was to obtain justice for Ms. Enyeart. Many details have yet to be released, as this investigation is on-going.”
Monday, a medical examiner determined she died of homicidal violence, they wrote. Portland cops arrested French.
Enyeart’s eldest child, Antonio Reyes Enyeart, recently had a son, making the woman a new grandmother.
“He took my mother away from me,” Antonio Enyeart said in court, according to KGW.
Enyeart was a certified nursing assistant working in hospice care, according to KATU.
“She had a gift to help care for and nurture family, and that was just her disposition,” Eskelson told the outlet during the missing person case. “There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t hear from her.”
“I love her,” said Alex Goldstein Enyeart, Jeannie’s daughter. “She’s the sweetest woman that I’ve ever met, honestly, in my life, and I want her home more than anything.”
French remains held at the Multnomah County Detention Center on a count each of murder in the second degree and abuse of a corpse in the second degree, records show.
