Authorities ID Lookout car crash victim as ND woman missing since 2011
Published at | Updated atMULLAN — Authorities say they’ve been able to positively identify remains found at the site of a car crash off Lookout Pass as that of a North Dakota woman who vanished in 2011.
The discovery in the long-standing mystery came to light last week after a hiker found a human bone in the woods east of Mullan, Idaho at the foot of the pass.
The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Department then used the help of the U.S. Border Patrol and the Forest Service to overfly the area late last week, locating the crashed truck over the side of Interstate 90 on the Idaho side of the pass.
Authorities now tell MTN have positively identified the remains as that of 82-year old Florence Dumontet, who disappeared in mid-October 2011, when she was driving from Grand Forks, North Dakota to stay with friends in Shelton, Washington.
Investigators had been able to track Dumont to Butte, where she bought gas a a convenience store and was seen on surveillance video. Months later, detectives also confirmed a report she had been seen at Muralt’s truck stop west of Missoula around 11:30 on October 17.
But from there her trail went cold. Law enforcement agencies all along I-90 had searched extensively for Dumontet and he black Lincoln SUV, but without any success.
Investigators are still working on their reports, but say it appears Dumontet’s SUV went off the side of the freeway, tumbling some 500 yards down the mountainside.
Officials were able to positively identify Dumontet by checking the serial number for a prosthetic knee she was known to have.