The Bizarre Case Of A Missing Murrieta Woman, Now Feared Dead

MURRIETA, CA — When Jennifer Kinsella-Grindle left home last Monday, it was the last time she would ever do so. The last person publicly known to have seen her was a complete stranger. It wouldn't be until nearly five days later that she would be seen again; this time, she was dead, friends tell Patch.

Patch has spoken with several people in the days since her disappearance. Though no one knows the whole story, everyone has used the same word in describing the case: Bizarre.

We've also reached out to law enforcement — several times. However, officials are tight-lipped in the case, which we believe has been investigated by both the Murrieta Police Department and the Riverside County Sheriff's Department's Lake Elsinore Station. That's because Kinsella-Grindle is a resident of Murrieta, but the case is linked to the Tenaja Falls area.

Neither agency publicly posted or shared information about a search for the woman. No plea for public help. No press releases describing the woman. It wasn't until late Friday that the sheriff's department even confirmed to Patch that the woman was sought.

By that night, a body was found on a local hiking trail, which her husband has publicly identified as Kinsella-Grindle. When we called the coroner's office on Tuesday to confirm the woman's death, we were told that no information is being released related to the body that was found; not even a confirmation of sex.

As this is an active case and limited information is available, we will attempt to break down what we know about this tragic death, but some information may change in the coming days.

Approximate Timeline

According to longtime friend Jim Nesvacil, Kinsella-Grindle was last seen near the trail-head to a popular hiking spot in the Tenaja Falls area on Monday, Aug. 28 around 2 p.m. Clad in flip-flops, a green tank top and brown shorts, she reportedly asked a stranger for water. Thinking it was a bit odd and that the woman looked dehydrated and confused, the stranger allegedly called the sheriff's department.

Monday's high was 113 degrees, and severe thunderstorms soon hit the area, according to the National Weather Service.

The thunderstorm over Lake Elsinore had a lot (70 in 10 minutes) in cloud lightning flashes today based on detection #cawx pic.twitter.com/0Jo19Pwlpz
— NWS San Diego (@NWSSanDiego) August 28, 2017

"When [the stranger] left that area, he called it in," Nesvacil told Patch. (After speaking with Kinsella-Grindle's husband, who reported her missing either Monday night or Tuesday, authorities allegedly linked the hiker who asked for water on the trail with Kinsella-Grindle.)

Nesvacil said he was told by family that authorities later went up to the area and found Kinsella-Grindle's car. A dog then reportedly traced her scent from the car to her abandoned purse.

"Her purse was sitting in the center of the street," he said, adding that's when the case was declared a missing persons case, to his knowledge.

Nesvacil said he learned his friend was missing on Wednesday night. Asked why no one had said anything about her, he said, "...from my understanding the law enforcement didn't want to hurt the investigation." But he decided to start taking action on Wednesday, as the time from which anyone had seen Kinsella-Grindle continued to grow.

"I figured it was already too late to wait any longer," he said.

That's when he started sharing information on Facebook about Jennifer Kinsella-Grindle, and the social posts soon took off. Her husband Tom was also sharing information at this time.

Throughout the week as Kinsella-Grindle remained missing, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday all saw temperatures between 108 and 112 degrees. On Thursday a massive thunderstorm came through the area, knocking down power lines and trees in town. The area of Tenaja Falls was right in the middle of it all.

Then, on Friday night, loved ones got the news they'd been fearing. A body was found on the trail, just shy of a mile from the trail-head, according to Nesvacil. Nesvacil said he heard police activity was going on in the area and went up to the site on Friday around 9:15 p.m., when authorities on scene described a body clad in the clothing his friend had last been seen wearing.

Tom Grindle later confirmed the gruesome discovery on Facebook on Saturday just before 3 a.m.:

"We were notified this evening that our beautiful, loving, caring, intelligent, Jennifer has left us. Your love and support has been so heart warming. Please just continued prayers and support. There is no words to articulate the love loss of Jennifer. I met Jennifer when she was only 22 years old and she has given me the 3 most beautiful gifts a man can ask for. We will need time to heal as a family as you all know. We will miss you beautiful there is no better smile on this planet. This is my favorite picture of Jennifer that I have. We will send out memorial information at a later date. We love you all."

Over the long Labor Day weekend, news of Kinsella-Grindle's death began to spread throughout the community.

A GoFundMe campaign was started to raise money for the woman's family. As of Tuesday afternoon, nearly $7,000 had been raised. Click here if you'd like to donate.

"She was a special girl, she'd do anything for any of her friends," Nesvacil said. "We lost a good one; she was a very special soul."

Courtesy image via search flier