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Jean Terese Keating, 54, shown in Linn County Jail photos in 1997 and 2013. Keating is accused in a fatal drunken driving crash near Albany in 1997 that killed a Dexter woman. Authorities said Keating fled the state while awaiting trial a year after the crash and was found in Canada this year after bragging in a bar about getting away with the alleged crime.
(Linn County sheriff)
Editor's note: There is an updated story on Jean Terese Keating.
A Milwaukie woman who disappeared in 1998 while awaiting trial for a fatal suspected drunken driving crash near Albany was found in Canada and is now back in custody in Oregon.
Jean Terese Keating, 54, was discovered in
, where authorities received a tip earlier this year that she was in a bar bragging about getting away with killing someone in a crash in the United States years earlier,
said.
Jewel Anderson
She was booked into the
on Thursday in connection with the April 1997 death of Jewel Oline Anderson, 65, of Dexter. Keating originally was indicted by a grand jury on manslaughter, DUII, reckless driving and reckless endangerment charges.
Noel Kuzma, a survivor of the Interstate 5 crash north of Albany, said he was surprised when state police called him last week to say Keating had been tracked down. He thought she would never be caught after she skipped a March 1998
appearance and the years continued to roll on with no sign of her.
"I don't think there is anything I would say to her if I saw her now," said Kuzma, 44, of Scio. "She obviously has issues that I couldn't even begin to try and fix."
Keating, then 38, was driving with her two young children when her station wagon sideswiped a two-door car on I-5 near milepost 237, police said. The other car, driven by Anderson, careened across the center median and into Kuzma's Lincoln Continental.
Kuzma said the crash occurred around 11 a.m. on a Sunday while he was driving his grandfather and girlfriend to a restaurant in Albany to celebrate three family members' birthdays.
"I remember driving down the road and then the car came out of nowhere and was in front of me," Kuzma said. "I didn't have much time to react."
His car's front windshield was a shattered and the driver's side door so smashed that "I still don't know how I got it to open," he said.
Kuzma told his grandfather and girlfriend to stay inside and try not to move until paramedics arrived. By the time he got out of the car and brushed glass off himself, he noticed a crowd of passers-by who witnessed the wreck.
Anderson's car was destroyed, he said. He started walking toward it, but was stopped by the people gathered there.
"They said it didn't look too good," Kuzma said. "So I went back to my car and then the paramedics showed up."
Kuzma said he suffered cuts but no serious injuries. His grandfather had a broken sternum and ribs and his girlfriend was hospitalized with internal injuries, he said.
Kuzma never saw Keating and her children, who escaped the crash unharmed, according to police.
Keating was out on bail when she stopped contacting her attorney who was worried that she had fled, state police said. A warrant was issued for her arrest, police said. Her family never reported her missing.
Earlier this year, OSP received a tip from Canadian police that Keating may be in the country, state police said. Manitoba police discovered she had a previous drunken driving arrest in Canada and matched her fingerprints with a U.S. database.
In April, Keating was detained by the Canadian Immigration Division and deported the same month, state police said. U.S. marshals arrested her on June 13 in North Dakota and she was later extradited to Oregon.
Anderson's family released a statement expressing relief that Keating is back in custody.
"While there is no price to be put on repayment for taking a life, and it certainly won't bring Jewel back, we are thankful that finally after 16 years of her running, hiding and torment, our families will have some closure," the statement said.
-- Everton Bailey Jr.