Her family didn’t report her missing right away, thinking she was with relatives. But when she didn’t come home, they reported her missing the next day. She had no money with her.

Two years later, in 1995, their neighbor, Kyle Kenneth Bell, confessed to killing Jeanna. He said he sexually assaulted her in his garage, she threatened to tell her parents, he hit her, and she accidentally died after falling while wearing her rollerblades. He claimed he threw her body in the Sheyenne River.

Searches of the river turned up a rope and cinder block that matched items from Bell’s home – possibly used to dispose of the body. Hairs in Bell’s truck matched Jeanna’s DNA. Despite Bell later recanting his confession, he was convicted of murder in 1999 and sentenced to life in prison.

Amazingly, he escaped from prison shortly after. He was on the run until 2000 when he was caught in Texas after being featured on “America’s Most Wanted.”

Sadly, Jeanna’s body has never been found, and searches were stopped due to lack of funding. Her mother passed away in 2009.