What was originally reported as an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) fatality is now considered a suspicious death in Mountain Center. The victim was identified as Jodi Newkirk, 46, of Mountain Center.

At 5:07 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 23, Riverside County (RC) Fire and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) were dispatched to Bonita Vista Ranch on Bonita Vista Road in Mountain Center to what was reported as an ATV rollover.

RC Fire logged it as a traumatic injury where the “rider perished at the scene.”

But at 5:39 p.m., RC Sheriff’s Department deputies out of the Hemet station were called to “… a suspicious death investigation believed to have been a traffic fatality …

“Upon arriving, deputies located a deceased female in the open area of a large private property with unexplained injuries. A crime scene was secured, and the Central Homicide Unit responded and assumed the investigation.”

Investigators remained on scene until late afternoon Friday due to the terrain and inclement weather. RC Sheriff’s Department would not comment further on the investigation.

The ranch is the same one owned by Dia Abrams, 65, who went missing June 6, 2020. Keith Leslie Harper, a ranch hand who lives on the property and claims to be Abrams’ fiancé, is the beneficiary of her properties along with Diana Fedder, a Mountain Center resident.

Harper, 72, is a registered sex offender having been found guilty of sexual misconduct toward three women on a Feb. 24, 2011 snowmobile tour near Durango, Colorado where he was operating Outlaw River & Jeep Tours.

Anyone with information regarding the Mountain Center investigation is asked to call Master Investigator Loureiro of the Central Homicide Unit Station at 951-955-277 or Investigator Rinkert of the Hemet Sheriff’s Station at 951-791-3400.