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Left inset: Michel Fournier (Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office). Right inset: Susan Lane-Fournier (Facebook/Always Our Phoenix). Background: Susan Lane-Fournier’s abandoned truck in Mount Hood National Forest near the area where her body was found (KGW/YouTube).
In a chilling case unfolding in Oregon, a man stands accused of fatally shooting his wife after she handed him divorce papers. Michel Fournier, now on trial, reportedly confessed to the crime during jailhouse conversations with her son, expressing that he “lost it.” Prosecutors and family members describe Fournier as “narcissistic,” asserting that his actions were driven by a desire to retain control over the couple’s shared property.
Tragically, instead of embarking on a fresh chapter in her life, Susan Lane-Fournier’s story took a devastating turn. “She ended up, rather than starting that new chapter, wrapped in a tarp and dumped in the woods,” remarked Deputy District Attorney John Millar during his opening statements on Tuesday, as reported by The Oregonian.
Fournier, aged 72, faces charges of second-degree murder in connection with the death of 61-year-old Susan Lane-Fournier. Her disappearance in November 2024 was first noted when her truck was found abandoned in the Mount Hood National Forest. The search ended in sorrow when deputies from the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office discovered her body in the Welches area, close to East Highway 26 and East Miller Road. Fournier was swiftly taken into custody following the grim discovery.
Authorities have ruled Lane-Fournier’s death a homicide, revealing she suffered gunshot wounds to the head, neck, and chest. Her family, in a GoFundMe campaign, mournfully noted that she was killed “after serving [Fournier] with divorce papers.”
The case is further complicated by recorded jailhouse calls, where Fournier allegedly admitted to the murder in conversations with Lane-Fournier’s adult son, a detail reported by The Oregonian. As the trial unfolds, these admissions could prove pivotal in determining Fournier’s fate.
“I’m sorry,” Fournier allegedly said in one call, according to prosecutors. “I lost it.”
Fournier allegedly added, “I will be paying for it for a very long time.”
After Lane-Fournier disappeared in November 2024, it was initially thought that the woman was a “missing hiker” who had gotten lost with her two Malinois-mix dogs after the discovery of her truck, according to Clackamas officials. Fournier is accused of killing the dogs, too.
“My sister lost her life because of a narcissistic, immature little man,” said Lane-Fournier’s brother, Michael Lane, in an interview with local CBS affiliate KOIN after opening statements this week.
“His name was never on the lease,” Lane told local NBC affiliate KGW, in reference to the home the couple shared. “He had to kill her to mute the divorce so he could keep the property.”
Online filings viewed by Law&Crime show there was an unsuccessful attempt to serve Fournier on Nov. 8, 2024. The couple had been married since May 2012. Lane-Fournier had filed for divorce on Oct. 31, 2025, citing “irreconcilable differences” that caused an “irremediable breakdown of their marriage.”
As people were searching for Lane-Fournier, prosecutors say her husband called police two days after she was reported missing and said, ‘I think you guys want to talk to me. I was just served divorce papers. I’ve got a target on my back,’” according to The Oregonian. Lane-Fournier’s family and friends, including her mom, have said they suspected early on that something sinister happened to her.
“The first thing out of her mouth was, ‘That son of a b— killed her,’” Lane said of his mother to KOIN.
“She’s ex-search and rescue in California, so she’s well aware of safety procedures when it comes to being out in the woods,” Lane-Fournier’s other son, Dakota Lane, told Portland CBS affiliate KOIN while authorities were searching for her. “I don’t think she’s a missing hiker at all,” added James Evans, a friend of Lane-Fournier’s who spoke to KOIN during the search.
Evans wound up being the one who found Lane-Fournier’s body, hidden underneath a tarp.
“When I reached down to pick up the tarp, I looked up and I saw a pair of boots,” he told KOIN.
A post on the “Always Our Phoenix” memorial page dedicated to Lane-Fournier describes her as “an artist, a creator, a healer, and a connector” who lived in a “small, sunlit home on the edge of the forest, where her walls bore the hues of her soul.”
Fournier’s trial is expected to last two weeks.