Missing Teen Girl Found Dead In Car Sandpoint 17-Year-Old Apparently Careened Off Highway Monday

A 17-year-old Sandpoint girl who had been missing since Monday was found dead Friday night.

Idaho State Police believe Jean Ann Heimsoth died when her car careened off Highway 57 about three miles north of Priest River, Idaho.

Although officers believe the crash occurred about 8 p.m. Monday, her crushed 1990 Geo Metro was not found until 5 p.m. Friday.

Heimsoth was not wearing a seat belt. ISP officials believe she died almost instantly. An autopsy will be performed Monday.

In searching for the missing girl, Heimsoth’s parents and family friends drove past the accident site several times but were unable to see the car because it was about 15 feet down an embankment.

Jean Heimsoth worked at Pizza Hut in Sandpoint and at Silverwood this summer. She hoped to work for an airline so she could travel, said Mark Heimsoth, her father.

“She loved to live and laugh,” the girl’s mother, Mary Heimsoth, said Saturday. “She had a lot of friends and she was a good friend.”

On Monday, Jean Heimsoth left her parent’s Sandpoint home about 3 p.m. to see friends.

Her mother had asked her to be home by 9:30 that night, but when the teen didn’t show up Mary Heimsoth chalked it up to her daughter’s independence.

“She was a very independent type person, very strong willed,” Mary Heimsoth said. “We were worried of course, (but) we thought she was just with her friends.”

The teenager had in the past left home for several days at a time, her mother said.

But Mary Heimsoth became increasingly concerned as days passed. She began searching for her daughter.

Jean loved to ride horses and camp and had told her mother about a favorite spot she’d found at Horseshoe Lake in Washington.

“She told me, ‘Mom, you would love it, it is so pretty up here,”’ Mary Heimsoth said. “I was just hoping she was there camping with her friends. It was just a shot in the dark but you do whatever you can think of.”

Mary Heimsoth spent two days trekking to Horseshoe Lake only to find disappointment - her daughter wasn’t there.

Then on Thursday, one of the teen’s good friends called and said friends were worried because none of them could find her.

Mary Heimsoth decided to report the teenager missing to the Bonner County Sheriff’s Department on Thursday.

A boy riding his bike along the highway Friday evening spotted the crumpled car down the embankment, Mary Heimsoth said.

ISP officers believe it was dark and raining as Heimsoth drove north on Highway 57 Monday evening. She had left one friend’s house sometime between 7:30 and 8 p.m. but never made it to the next friend’s house.

North of Priest River, Jean’s car slid across the southbound lane of traffic and off the highway, said Cpl. Wayne Harms.

The vehicle flew about 60 feet through the air and landed in the trees, according to an ISP report.

“If you didn’t really look for it, you couldn’t see it,” Harms said. “It was sort of camouflaged in with the bushes and the weeds.”

Heimsoth is survived by her parents and two younger brothers.

“She played hard and worked hard, she was a beautiful young lady and had she had a lot of spunk,” Mary Heimsoth said Saturday. “She enjoyed her life, short as it was.”

, DataTimes