A 25-year-old Kalispell-area woman pleaded not guilty to felony tampering with evidence a month after she was accused of being involved with a murder on the Flathead River.
Heather Joy Meeker appeared in Flathead County District Court on May 25. According to court documents, Meeker’s partner, Cecil Thomas Rice, pushed another man, 34-year-old Anthony Walthers, off a bridge in Evergreen after Walthers had said something about the woman. After leaving the scene of the crime, Meeker allegedly found a backpack she believed belonged to Walthers and threw it out the window of a moving vehicle.
Rice has been charged with deliberate homicide. Walthers’ body has not been recovered, but law enforcement authorities believe he is dead due to the high river flows and water temperature.
Authorities have described both the defendants and victim as transients who were living in the Kalispell area.
Meeker is expected to stand trial in August.
Rice will appear at an arraignment hearing in court next week.