Husband arrested for murder after missing Oregon woman and dogs found dead during multi-day search mission

Authorities in Oregon have arrested a man for allegedly murdering his wife after her body was found hours earlier in a small village near Mount Hood, about 70 miles east of Portland. Two dogs believed to belong to the woman have also now been found dead.

Susan Lane-Fournier was reported missing Nov. 22 after she failed to show up for work, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office said. She was 61 years old, CBS News affiliate KOIN reported.

According to the sheriff’s office, 71-year-old Michael Fournier was taken into custody on a charge of second-degree murder. He is being held without bail in the Clackamas County Jail. According to KOIN, Fournier is Lane-Fournier’s estranged husband. Authorities have asked for the public’s help in figuring out the man’s activities and whereabouts in the days before Lane-Fournier’s killing.

Although the sheriff’s office did not provide details about how Lane-Fournier was murdered, they confirmed that the medical examiner ruled her death a homicide following an autopsy.

Lane-Fournier’s disappearance sparked a search and rescue mission lasting several days. This operation was launched after a member of the local community reported seeing her car, a white 1992 Ford F-250, parked near a hiking trail in the Mount Hood area, the sheriff said.

Lane-Fournier’s friend James Evans joined the search. Evans remembered the moment he found the body not far from where her car was parked and KOIN.

“I went down the path, maybe 20 meters. I saw a tarp. I thought it was trash,” Evans told the news station. “I bent down to pick up the tarp and as I bent down and came up, I saw a pair of boots attached to one leg.”

Evans said he returned to the lodge and called 911.

“It was pretty heartbreaking,” he told KOIN, adding that Lane-Fournier “was my friend and, you know, I wasn’t particularly close to her, but she was my friend and I told myself that I would find her .” her.”

According to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, the nearby Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office recovered two deceased dogs in the area on Saturday. The animals are believed to be Lane-Fournier’s dogs, both of which went missing at the same time as her.