MOUNTAIN CENTER, Calif. — Newly released cell phone video shows Jodi Newkirk three months before she died under suspicious circumstances in 2021 on a ranch near Idyllwild.
It’s the same ranch where La Jolla millionaire Dia Abrams lived when she went missing in 2020. Abrams was never found.
A photographer recorded the video of Newkirk on Sept. 18, 2021 during a walkaround tour of the Bonita Vista Ranch (known as Cali’s Great Escape).
“We’re building a bridge over here. We're doing a wedding on the 15th of next month,” Newkirk said during the videotaped tour.
The photographer requested that she only be identified by her first name, Rosselinni.
She said a man named Keith Harper had randomly invited her to check out the property in 2021.
“I was approached by Harper. And he said, ‘Oh, I have a ranch up here, just a couple miles up the way and to the right. If you want to stop by later I can give you a tour,’” said Rosselinni.
When she showed up around 6:30 in the evening, Newkirk was the only person at the ranch and she proceeded to give the photographer a walking tour.
“Idyllwild is known for nice people. They're friendly. And so, I didn't think anything of it at the time,” the photographer said.
Rosselinni said she met with Harper in person, perhaps four times, before she started getting weird vibes.
“There was like this comment like, ‘Oh, you're like an angel that appeared to me.’ And. ‘Oh, you're like an angel like this warm sunlight,’ and just like weird things. I'm like, this is a little creepy. Like, he's probably not just trying to be nice. At this point, he's just kind of coming off as like hitting on me,” said Rosselinni.
Harper is in his 70s. Rosellinni said she was 28.
Eventually, Rossellini found out the owner of the ranch and Harper's girlfriend, Dia Abrams, went missing from the ranch on June 6, 2020.
Newkirk was found dead on the ranch on Dec. 23, 2021.
Harper said Newkirk, 46, died in a rollover ATV accident.
“She wanted to go get a Christmas tree and she took the ATV up on the hill and I don't know if she turned the wheel wrong, or what happens, but the machine flips and when I find her, she has been under that machine probably a half hour, I would suspect,” Harper said during a December 2021 telephone call.
Newkirk's official cause of death was "acute methamphetamine toxicity” according to her autopsy report. Investigators called the ATV accident “suspicious.”
Harper did not respond to CBS 8’s request seeking comment.
Asked why she was speaking out and releasing the video, Rosselinni said, “Something needs to be done. We need justice to be served for not only Jodi but Dia as well.”
Harper continues to live on the Bonita Vista Ranch as a co-trustee of the estate.
A Riverside County probate court judge recently appointed an independent fiduciary to take control of bank accounts and safety deposit boxes owned by the Dia Abrams estate in an effort to raise a $300,000 reward in the unsolved case.
WATCH RELATED: Entire video of Jodi Newkirk's tour of Bonita Vista Ranch in September 2021: