Jon French’s sentence followed a manslaughter plea that ended a murder prosecution stemming from Jeannie Enyeart’s 2024 death.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland man was sentenced to 16½ years in prison after pleading no contest to first-degree manslaughter and guilty to second-degree abuse of a corpse in the death of his fiancée, whose body was found concealed in the back seat of her car after the vehicle became stuck in snow in rural Washington.

Jon Pharris Ray French, 35, received the sentence Sept. 14 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, according to the district attorney’s office. The punishment brought the criminal case over the death of 47-year-old Jeannie Enyeart to a close more than two years after she disappeared from Northeast Portland. French had originally faced a second-degree murder charge. On Sept. 4, he instead entered a no-contest plea to first-degree manslaughter and a guilty plea to second-degree abuse of a corpse. Prosecutors said the charges concerned both Enyeart’s death and French’s actions in moving her body afterward.

The case began as a missing-person investigation. Enyeart’s son contacted Portland police on Jan. 29, 2024, after being unable to reach his mother for an unusually long period, prosecutors said. Family members had already become concerned because the lack of communication was out of character for her. Relatives told local news outlets at the time that Enyeart, a mother of two who worked as a certified nursing assistant in hospice care, stayed closely connected with her family. She had also recently become a grandmother. She was last publicly reported as having been seen near her Northeast Portland home on Jan. 27.

When investigators spoke with French, he gave them an account that quickly came into conflict with what police were learning elsewhere. Prosecutors said French claimed he had seen Enyeart the day before the missing-person report and told officers her car should be sitting in the driveway of the home they shared. It was not there. Instead, investigators learned that the Kia Soul had been driven across the state line into Washington and had become stuck in a snowbank on a rural road near Stevenson, in Skamania County. Authorities also learned French had been driving it when it crashed.

Court documents reported by KATU provided more detail about how French and the vehicle were located. A Skamania County road department worker encountered the Kia on East Loop Road on the morning of Jan. 29. French got out and approached the worker, appearing to be under the influence, according to the documents. He asked for a ride to a cousin’s home in the area. The cousin later told police that French arrived wearing only a light jacket despite the winter conditions and appeared to have injuries to his hands. The cousin also told investigators that French could not explain why he was out in the weather.

The vehicle was towed from the area, and investigators later searched it. Enyeart’s body was found in the back seat beneath a moving blanket and other items, prosecutors said. An autopsy determined that she died from blunt trauma to the neck, and the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. Reporting based on court documents said investigators also recovered a piece of a broken ceramic mug from Enyeart’s body. Detectives who searched the Portland home later found pieces of a broken mug in the master bedroom that appeared to match the fragment recovered during the examination of her body.

Other evidence described in court filings deepened investigators’ doubts about French’s initial account. KATU reported that French told police he believed a drug dealer named “Julius” had either kidnapped Enyeart or that she had gone voluntarily to meet him. Neighbors, however, told investigators that French and Enyeart frequently argued and said they had last seen her in a car with French on the night of Jan. 27. Surveillance footage also placed French in Enyeart’s vehicle at a Vancouver, Washington, cannabis store the following night, according to the court documents cited by the station.

Detectives also interviewed one of French’s former girlfriends. According to the court records reported by KATU, she said French knew the logging roads around his cousin’s property well and had previously talked about using those roads if he ever needed to hide something. That allegation became part of the broader evidence prosecutors presented while French was still awaiting trial. The state’s case ultimately did not go before a jury. After proceedings that included questions about French’s ability to stand trial, he was found competent in June 2025. A trial had eventually been scheduled for October 2026 before the September plea resolved the case.

Enyeart’s relatives had publicly expressed suspicion of French before the criminal case was resolved. During the initial search, her family described her as a caring mother, daughter and health care worker whose sudden silence was alarming. After French was charged, relatives also described tension in the relationship. Her brother Mychal Enyeart told The Oregonian that his sister had called off the couple’s wedding and intended to move out. That was the family’s account of events preceding her death; authorities did not publicly identify a definitive motive in the district attorney’s sentencing announcement.

The plea changed the legal posture of a case that had been moving toward a murder trial. A no-contest plea does not require a defendant to expressly admit the charged conduct in the same manner as a guilty plea, but it permits the court to enter a conviction. French separately pleaded guilty to second-degree abuse of a corpse. Multnomah County Chief Deputy District Attorney Todd Jackson and Deputy District Attorney Ryan Solomon handled the prosecution, while Portland Police Bureau homicide detectives Brent Christensen and Scott Broughton were credited by prosecutors for their work on the investigation.

At sentencing, Enyeart’s relatives and friends spoke about the effect of her death. Her sister, Kristin, described lasting pain caused by the loss, while a friend, Amy Nickerson, directly addressed French and said she did not forgive him, according to KXL. French was given an opportunity to speak but declined, the station reported. The hearing shifted attention from the evidence that had driven the prosecution to the people Enyeart left behind. Her family has also established a scholarship for nursing students at Clackamas Community College in recognition of her work caring for others.

French’s 16½-year prison term is now the central legal outcome of a case that began when Enyeart’s family could not reach her and ended after investigators connected her missing car, the snowbound vehicle in Washington, the body concealed inside it and evidence recovered from the Portland home. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office announced the sentence on Sept. 14. No further trial is scheduled because the September pleas resolved the charges.

Author note: Last updated October 20, 2026.