The Casper Police Department arrested a woman last week in connection with terroristic threats made to two Walmart locations, one of which was her employer, earlier this year.
Kaylee Shain was arrested on Friday on one felony charge of making threats, according to an announcement from the Casper Police Department on social media.
On Aug. 18, the CPD and other local law enforcement agencies responded to both Walmart locations in town regarding the report of bomb threats.
Two employees reported receiving text messages from unknown numbers. The messages claimed there were bombs inside the two locations and they would be set off at 7 p.m.
The sender also claimed in the messages that they were “after everyone” and also had firearms.
After the two employees shared these messages, both of the Walmart locations were evacuated. After a thorough search of both locations, officers could not identify a valid threat at either scene.
After speaking with employees, the officers determined the texts were sent using a voice-over IP number, a phone number issued over the internet instead of through a cellular carrier. These are regularly used by scammers and people who wish to remain anonymous while participating in criminal activities.
Detectives were suspicious that the two employees knew more about the messages and obtained search warrants to find out more.
One of the employees, Shain, confessed to sending the messages to herself and the co-worker because of the personal satisfaction she would gain due to the disruption the threat would cause.
Detectives also found evidence on her cell phone as well as the VOIP and her internet provider that proved Shain was the owner of the account that sent the threatening messages.
“Making any type of terroristic threat in our community is not acceptable,” said Casper Police Detective Jesse Jones. “Incidents such as this not only cause unnecessary fear, panic, and a sense of insecurity in our community, it costs thousands of dollars in emergency personnel time and resources to respond to and investigate. We simply cannot allow incidents such as this to go ignored. The Casper Police Department is proud to be able to offer our community highly professional investigative services to not only find the suspects but create a case that holds them accountable in court.”
After an extensive and thorough investigation, Shain was arrested.
