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An Oregon woman who spent more than a decade in hiding after a fatal crash built a life with her two children while living illegally in Canada.

Jean Keating was living in the rural Manitoba town of Minnedosa, population 2,500, about 300 miles north of Grand Forks, N.D., TheOregonian reported

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After the fatal 1997 crash, in which she faced manslaughter and drunken-driving charges, Keating stopped contacting her attorney. Police believe she crossed the Canadian border with her children, ages 1 and 3, in 1998.

For more than a decade, she appeared to have built a new life in a new country, but trouble followed her. She was arrested several times in Canada, including on a charge for drunken driving.

Despite encounters with law enforcement, she managed to keep her past a secret. In early 2013, that secret began to unravel, apparently by Keating’s own doing. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police constable heard rumours about a woman named “Jean McPherson” in town who bragged about getting away with manslaughter in the U.S.