By Chuck Hustmyre
October 19, 2006
BIG TIMBER, Mont. (Crime Library) — A man looking for a better fishing spot on the banks of the Yellowstone River Saturday stumbled across the skeletal remains of missing Montana teenager Heather "Brianna" Wilkins.
According to local law enforcement officials, the remains, found in a wooded area with thick underbrush, were taken to Billings, Mont., where a forensic pathologist used dental records to positively identify the body as being that of the missing 17 year old.
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| Heather Brianna Wilkins |
Wilkins vanished on the morning of Jan. 11 from her home in Livingston, Mont., 30 miles from where her body was found.
Police officials say they do not suspect foul play, adding that Brianna tried to run away from home a few hours before she disappeared, but a sheriff's deputy picked her up.
Since Wilkins' disappearance, her mother, Cheryl "Chera" Walsh, has speculated that her daughter may have wandered off on a spiritual journey of self discovery. According to Walsh, just days before Brianna disappeared she became nearly obsessed with the book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by German-born, New Age guru Eckhart Tolle.
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| Author Eckhart Tolle |
While on a road trip with her mother in early January—a week before she disappeared—Brianna spent hours listening to an audio version of Tolle's book. Walsh herself claims to have read the book 35 times.
"That's what transformed her life that last week—those tapes, that book," Walsh told Crime Library during an interview in mid-February.
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