A mother is searching for answers after her mentally ill daughter was found dead in Kennewick

Family and friends tried helping Annette G. Nemeth as she struggled with mental illness.

Now her mother Rose Ann Woosley Riggins is looking for answers about what happened to her 47-year-old daughter in the days before her death.

“She is bipolar and would disappear for long stretches of time. We need your help,” Riggins, who lives in Oregon, wrote on Facebook. “We need your help.”

Nemeth’s body was discovered late Friday afternoon near a regular homeless camping area along Highway 240 near the interchange with Highway 395.

A man spotted her partly decomposed body along the bank of an empty irrigation canal and called police. When officers arrived, they also discovered the man had a warrant and he was arrested.

Her body was hard to see because of some trees and it was along a rarely traveled stretch of canal road.

A cellphone discovered near her was used to help find her family members and also to estimate that she may have been dead five to six weeks, said officials.

Benton County Coroner Bill Leach said Wednesday’s autopsy showed no obvious wounds but they need to wait for blood tests before making a final determination about how she died.

Several people commented on Facebook that Nemeth was a wonderful person who needed mental health treatment, but was too scared to get it.

She was last known to be living in Richland, but it’s uncertain if she was still at that home, Leach said.

She has family in Florida, and public records show she has lived in Virgina, Oregon and Idaho.

Kennewick police are continuing to investigate her death, and are asking anyone with information about her to call 509-628-0333.

This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 4:42 PM.