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An Oregon man has been arrested and charged with the murder of his wife, whose body was found in a remote part of Oregon on Friday (November 29), a week after she went missing while hiking with her two dogs. The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office arrested Michel Fournier, 71, on Saturday, and he is currently being held in a county jail with no bail on a charge of second-degree murder for allegedly killing his wife, 61-year-old Susan Lane-Fournier.
Lane-Fournier, who went by the name "Phoenix," was found in the remote wilderness of Welches, an unincorporated community at the foot of Mount Hood. An autopsy concluded that the cause of death was homicide.
The discovery of Lane-Fournier's body was made after more than 800 search hours involving dozens of officers, K9s, and volunteers trekked through more than 100 miles of trail looking for Susan.
Lane-Fournier was first reported missing when she failed to show up for work at a local shop on November 22. The next day, a member of the public spotted her white 1992 Ford F-250 parked near East Salmon River Road. The sheriff's office is now seeking anyone who may have seen Michel Fournier in the days before her disappearance or who has information about his activity and whereabouts since then.
A month before her disappearance, Lane-Fournier had filed for divorce from Fournier, citing irreconcilable differences. The local community has expressed shock over her alleged murder, with some gathering at her place of work, a shop selling exotic imported goods, to pray for her.