PORTLAND, Ore. — The father of a 27-year-old woman who died after falling out of her mother’s car in rural Yamhill County filed a $500,000 wrongful death lawsuit. The lawsuit claims Jennifer Jaeger, previously known as Jennifer Weathers, was negligent for drunken driving and failing to stop after Meighan Cordie tumbled from her car on Aug. 18, 2018. Jaeger and her daughter had been in an argument on their way home from a wedding.
The lawsuit, filed in Marion County, suggests Jaeger misled investigators. Cordie was found dead several days later.
The lawsuit suggests Jaeger has refused to release her daughter’s remains from the funeral home. It seeks a court order requiring the remains be released to Cordie’s father, Anton Cordie.
KGW has been following this story since Cordie was first reported missing in August 2018.
The prosecutor believes Jaeger knew something terrible had happened to Cordie on the 2018 summer night. But she never said anything, even as friends, family and rescue teams desperately searched for the Corie.
On the morning of August 23, 2018, emergency dispatchers got a 911 call. Three joggers reported spotting a dead woman over an embankment on the Dayton interchange with Highway 18.
According to detectives, Cordie’s injuries suggested she fell or jumped from a car moving much faster than her mother described.
Additionally, Cordie was found more than nine miles from where her mother suggested she was last seen.
“Things just did not make sense,” said Brad Berry, Yamhill County District Attorney. “It’s almost unfathomable that somebody would not stop at the instant she left the car. You’d think somebody would stop.”
Read Kyle Iboshi's full investigation into the mysterious death of Meighan Cordie.
