No criminal charges will be filed in the death of a 27-year-old woman found at the bottom of an embankment in Yamhill County last month after she likely got out of a moving car her mother was driving, the county district attorney announced Thursday.



But the parent has been cited for drunken driving and has refused to continue to cooperate with police in the death investigation after a polygraph test wasn't able to confirm if she was truthfully answering questions related to her daughter's death, according to Yamhill District Attorney Brad Berry.



The Oregon State Medical Examiner's Office has ruled the death of Meighan Cordie accidental, and authorities believe she got out of the car while in the back seat with her 3-year-old daughter late Aug. 18 as the car traveled on a curve along Southeast Foster Road near Dayton. Cordie landed on her back on the roadway, hit her head at least twice on a guardrail and rolled 20 feet down the embankment, Berry said.



The three were heading home from a wedding in Grand Island in Yamhill County. Cordie was later reported missing by her mother Jennifer Weathers, who told authorities that Cordie walked away from the car without her shoes and cellphone. A large search effort was coordinated in the area to find Cordie, who was found dead by joggers on Aug. 23.





An autopsy showed Cordie suffered injuries that included two broken or severed vertebrae and died instantly once she hit the road. Weathers told police she was driving less than 5 mph when Cordie got out, but evidence shows she likely was driving "significantly higher" than that speed, Berry said.



Available evidence has ruled out Cordie being hit by a car, and based on what Weathers and Cordie's daughter told police on where everyone was sitting in the car, it would have been unlikely Cordie was pushed out of the car, according to Berry.



Berry said there isn't enough evidence to show whether Cordie jumped or fell from the moving car.



The investigation found several inconsistencies in Weathers' account of events to police, including that Cordie got out of the car more than 9 miles away from the wedding site, when Weathers said it wasn't far from the wedding; that Weathers was likely going much faster than 5 mph when Cordie left the car based on Cordie's injuries; and that she took a wrong turn on the way back to the Portland area, ending up on Southeast Foster Road. Weathers and Cordie had been drinking the night of the wedding, and witnesses said Weathers appeared so intoxicated that she shouldn't have been driving.



"This is certainly a horribly tragic case, complicated by incomplete or misinformation to the investigators early on," Berry said.

Meighan Cordie death investigation news conference Posted by The Oregonian on Thursday, September 27, 2018

Weathers was contacted by police Thursday at her home in King City and was cited for driving under the influence of intoxicants and reckless endangering. She is scheduled to be arraigned in Yamhill County Court on Wednesday. She was not booked into jail.

Berry said after analyzing the case, "Frustratingly, there are really no charges and no crimes where all the elements would fit," to file any charges related to Cordie's death. He said it was "impossible" to tell how fast the car was going when Cordie got out.

The district attorney said Weathers told authorities that Cordie told her they had to leave the wedding around 10:15 p.m. on Aug. 18 because Cordie's child was becoming fussy. Cordie and Weathers began arguing while heading toward the car because Weathers wanted to stay.

According to Weathers, they continued arguing while she was driving. The mother said Cordie asked to be let out a short while later. Weathers said she was driving less than 5 mph when Cordie got out of the car, leaving her shoes, purse and cellphone in the front passenger seat. The mother said Cordie was in the back seat with her daughter when she left the car.

Weathers told investigators she stopped the car and got out sometime after, looked for her daughter in the dark, couldn't find her and drove away with her granddaughter. It's not clear if she knew her daughter had been killed.

"Clearly leaving her daughter there, if we're talking right versus wrong, it's hard for me to fathom that somebody would do that," Berry said. "But it doesn't mean that I've got a crime."

Weathers said she thought Cordie walked back to the wedding and was "pretty sure" Cordie would return home eventually because her daughter was with Weathers.



Weathers told authorities she returned to the same spot the next day, then contacted police after and said Cordie was missing.



After a police detective searched the car and found a clump of hair, Weathers said it was hers and that Cordie had pulled it from her head as the two fought inside the car at some point.



Weathers agreed to take a polygraph Aug. 21, and the results were inconclusive on whether she was truthfully answering questions. She had no explanation for the results, Berry said, and agreed to take a second test the next day.



"That never happened," Berry said.



Weathers canceled her appearance on Aug. 22 and never rescheduled. Joggers found Cordie's body the next day down the embankment.

— Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey