Jailed Transient Not Long-Sought Woman

SPOKANE

The father of a woman who disappeared after a traffic accident in Montana more than 16 months ago says a transient being held in a northern Idaho jail is not his daughter.

Tom Meehan said he and his wife, Dolly, talked with the jailed woman on the phone this weekend ``and we knew it wasn't Patty by her voice.''

Meehan's 38-year-old daughter, Patricia Meehan, walked away from a on traffic accident on April 20, 1989, and hasn't been seen since.

The woman being held in the Kootenai County Jail in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, identifies herself as Morning Star. She was arrested Thursday for littering by a police officer who saw her and thought she was Patricia Meehan.

A magistrate dismissed the littering charge, but authorities have ordered that the woman be kept in jail on a protective order after a doctor examined her and decided that she wasn't mentally competent, Coeur d'Alene police Lt. Greg Surplus said.