Missing woman's body is recovered

PRIEST RIVER — The body of a Bonner County woman who disappeared in 2004 has been recovered, Kootenai County sheriff’s officials announced on Thursday.

The remains of Christine Lott were discovered in a remote and wooded area along a U.S. Forest Service Road near Coeur d’Alene in February 2016. The discovery was kept confidential until her husband could be located and interviewed by detectives in Kootenai County, officials said in a news release.

Lott’s death is being investigated as a homicide by detectives in Bonner and Kootenai counties. Anyone who was in contact with the Lott family in 2004 or have information regarding the case are urged to leave a message with Kootenai County Sheriff Major Crimes Det. Jerry Northrup at 208-446-227 or jnorthrup@kcgov.us.

Lott was reportedly last seen outside Mitchell’s IGA — now Mitchell’s Harvest Foods — on March 25, 2004.

Bonner County Sheriff’s detectives spoke publicly about Lott’s disappearance in 2012, after running down every lead that came their way and subjecting the case to more than one cold-case panel review.

Lott’s husband, Stephen, told investigators he went inside the store to buy milk and his wife asked to be alone and said she needed to make a call from a pay phone outside, detectives said in 2012. He then saw his wife get in the cab of a red pickup truck with Washington plates, which made its way westbound on U.S. Highway 2, Stephen Lott told investigators.

In an interview with a detective, Lott admitted there was some marital strife and that the couple argued over his lack of employment and his willingness to take an out-of-town job, investigators said in 2012.

The grief-stricken family of Christine Lott, a 34-year-old mother at the time of her disappearance, insisted that she would never abandon her children and if she did leave the area it was not of her own volition. Investigators said they detected no activity in Christine Lott’s phone or banking records following her disappearance.

Stephen Lott, 48, subsequently moved to Arizona, where he was raising the couple’s children. Arizona’s online court database indicates he was cited for a motor vehicle violation in Tempe in 2010.

Stephen Lott’s current whereabouts were not disclosed by investigators on Thursday.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.