Daily Darwin

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Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Daily Darwin: Wednesday, December 21, 2022 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Gee, what ever could go wrong?

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Daily Cartoon

Cartoon 1 7 10 26

<title>Daily Cartoon 1: Friday, July 10, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon 1: Friday, July 10, 2026

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Nearly two months after 26-year-old Ashley Rose Jackson was fatally shot during a child custody exchange in Casper, many questions about what happened remain unanswered.

The Casper Police Department told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that the investigation into the May 15 shooting remains active. Because the case has not been closed, police said they are not yet able to release investigative records or discuss additional details.

On the night of the shooting, police said officers responded to the 400 block of East 15th Street for reports of gunfire and found two people dead: Jackson and 28-year-old Ethen Christopher Short, the father of her 3-year-old son, Will.

Investigators described it as a domestic incident involving two adults who knew each other and said the alleged shooter was also found dead at the scene.

[{"type":"text","text":"Jackson's death certificate lists her manner of death as homicide."}]

While investigators continue their work, Jackson's family says they hope Wyoming remembers the person she was before the tragedy.

Cowboy State Daily also reached out to Short's mother to offer her an opportunity to comment but did not receive a response.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Devoted Mother First"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Jackson was born in Casper in 1999 and spent her entire life in Wyoming."}]

She graduated from Natrona County High School and, according to her mother, Shannon Clark, found the two passions that defined her life: her son, Will, and photography.

"She wanted to be his mommy more than anything in the world," Clark said.

Jackson built Wildflower Lens Jackson Photography with the dream of making family photography affordable. She photographed weddings, maternity sessions, newborns and even Rainbow Bridge sessions for families preparing to say goodbye to beloved pets.

Photography wasn't simply a business. Clark said Jackson hoped it would someday allow her to work around Will's schedule and even homeschool him.

When photography alone wasn't enough to pay the bills, Jackson went to work as a server at the 19th Hole while continuing to grow her business.

According to Clark, her daughter had recently gotten back on her feet after separating from Short. She had a vehicle, was renting a home from her parents, had wedding bookings on her calendar and was supporting herself.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"She was making her life happen,\" Clark said."}]

Clark said she still thinks about the Mother's Day just before Jackson died. Her daughter surprised her with a silver cross necklace while wearing the matching gold one herself. Jackson was wearing that necklace when she was killed.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"She was glowing,\" Clark said. \"She had her whole life ahead of her.\""}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'He's Not Going To Do Nothing'"}]

Clark remembers the early years of Jackson's relationship with Short differently than how it ended.

She said the couple appeared happy, looked forward to becoming parents, and celebrated Will's birth in January 2023.

[{"type":"text","text":"Over time, however, Clark said she noticed changes."}]

She described Short as increasingly withdrawn during family gatherings and later became concerned by what she believed was escalating behavior after the couple's breakup.

Clark recounted several incidents she believes marked a turning point, including what she described as a mental-health crisis, allegations that Short peeked through Jackson's windows and disagreements surrounding custody exchanges involving Will.

Cowboy State Daily has requested investigative records related to the case, but because the investigation remains active those records are not available for release.

[{"type":"text","text":"Looking back, Clark said one text message now haunts her."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I told her, 'Please keep your firearm with you',\" she recalled."}]

Jackson replied: "'Mommy, I will. I'm going to be safe. I'm not worried about Ethan. He's not going to do nothing'."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Final Custody Exchange"}]

On the night of May 15, Jackson and Short met near the Werner Wildlife Museum to exchange custody of their son.

Around 7:20 p.m., Casper police responded to reports of a shooting in the area of East 15th Street between Beech and Lincoln streets. 

Police have not publicly detailed what investigators believe occurred during the final moments before the shooting.

Clark said Jackson's father followed her to the exchange because he had a bad feeling but gave the pair some space. After Jackson arrived, he drove around the block before parking on Beech Street, where he could see the exchange from a distance.

After Jackson got their son buckled in his car seat, Clark said Short began walking toward the boy, and Jackson stepped in front of him, trying to keep him from reaching their son. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Clark said Short then shoved Jackson."}]

"That's when Billy stepped on it" Clark said, talking about Jackson's father. 

By the time he reached the parking lot, "it was too late for Ashley." She said Billy made it to his daughter moments after she was shot and witnessed Short turn the gun on himself.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Jackson's Legacy "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Clark said the greatest heartbreak now belongs to Jackson's son."}]

She said Will witnessed the shooting and has since reenacted what happened while trying to make sense of it.

During the Fourth of July holiday, Clark said every firecracker caused him to jump because he believed he was hearing gunshots.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"The quiet moments are the hardest,\" Clark said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Today, Will lives with his grandparents."}]

Clark said raising him the way Jackson wanted has become her family's mission.

Friends and relatives are organizing a memorial golf scramble to benefit Will, and the family hopes to hold a candlelight vigil later this year when Jackson's oldest brother returns to Wyoming.

, a nonprofit initiative she said is being launched by Jackson's brother, Spencer, and family friend Shane Liberda. The organization plans to transform firearms connected to violent crimes into a source of hope by using proceeds to help victims of violence. Jackson and Will are expected to become the organization's first beneficiaries.

 to help provide long-term financial support for Will as he grows up without his parents.

For Clark, though, Jackson's legacy isn't measured by memorials or fundraisers.

It's measured every morning when a little boy wakes up in his grandparents' home.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I'm raising her son the way she would want,\" Clark said. "}]

Ashley Rose Jackson 103978617 1779381730937021 r 7 9 26

<title>‘Quiet Moments Are The Hardest,’ Mom Says Of Casper Woman Killed By Ex-Boyfriend | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Two months after a Casper woman was killed during a child custody exchange with her ex-boyfriend, her mother says she wants people to know who her daughter was. "The quiet moments are the hardest," she said. "She had her whole life ahead of her."

‘Quiet Moments Are The Hardest,’ Mom Says Of Casper Woman Killed By Ex-Boyfriend

Courts

A Manderson, Wyoming, man and woman have been charged after the suspicious death of an infant in a case where investigators say a camper where the child lived was filthy, overheated, had no running water and was littered with human waste, animal feces and meth.

The investigation began just after 10 a.m. Monday, when agents with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation were notified of the suspicious, unattended death of an infant.

By the time Special Agent Anthony Giles arrived at Three Rivers Hospital in Basin, the baby's mother — 22-year-old Destynie Study — had already told investigators what she said happened that morning.

A newly filed affidavit in the case available Thursday says Destynie fed and changed the infant around 1:30 a.m. before putting the baby back to sleep in a crib inside the family's camper in Manderson. 

She told investigators she woke around 9:45 a.m. and found the infant unresponsive.

She immediately grabbed the child, climbed into her father's vehicle and started driving toward Three Rivers Hospital, calling 911 along the way. 

The affidavit says the baby lived in the camper with the mother, her father Travis Study, and another child who is just over a year old.

At the hospital, investigators said dirt covered Destynie's arms, legs and clothing, and what appeared to be lice eggs or significant dandruff near her scalp. 

"An overwhelming smell of body odor, urine and feces was coming from her person and the room," Giles wrote.

Investigators also documented dirt beneath the infant's fingernails and that "the same odor was permeating from the deceased infant's body."

"The infant's diaper was completely saturated in urine," Giles wrote, along with a small amount of feces and a live, moving insect inside the diaper after it was removed. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"5-Gallon Bucket Of Human Waste"}]

Armed with a search warrant, DCI agents later searched the camper where the family had been living. Outside sat several black garbage bags investigators believed had recently been placed there.

When agents opened the door, they were hit with the same overwhelming odor of urine, feces and body odor they had encountered earlier at the hospital, wrote Giles. 

Investigators described the camper as being in "complete disarray,” the affidavit says.

Old and moldy food, empty food containers and trash littered nearly every corner. Clothing, wrappers and garbage were piled throughout the sleeping area, the affidavit continues. 

The bathroom emitted what investigators described as an extremely strong smell of feces.

[{"type":"text","text":"The camper itself also was stifling hot."}]

Investigators measured the interior temperature at about 95 degrees with an air conditioner that didn't work. 

There also was no running water connected to the camper, and the sewage system appeared to have been unusable for some time, the affidavit says. The shower and sinks showed signs they had not functioned for an extended period.

The affidavit says investigators also found dog feces and mouse droppings throughout the camper.

[{"type":"text","text":"Inside the bathroom sat a 5-gallon bucket nearly full of human waste."}]

The toilet also contained human waste and appeared abandoned, investigators wrote, with evidence of insect infestation.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Warning Signs "}]

The crib where Destynie told investigators the infant slept was damp and smelled strongly of urine.

Investigators found urine-soaked bedding, a soiled diaper beneath the mattress, and liquid pooled inside the crib's frame. When they lifted the crib, more foul-smelling liquid drained from its support structure, says the affidavit.

Fresh trash outside the camper allegedly discarded before law enforcement arrived contained baby food along with a comforter investigators believed was heavily soiled with urine and feces.

Court records note the conditions inside the camper had raised alarms months before the infant died.

The document outlines four separate contacts between the family, the Wyoming Department of Family Services and Manderson police dating back to early April.

On one visit, officials said they were denied entry while investigating concerns about the family's living conditions.

Another welfare check involved reports that Destynie had missed prenatal appointments during what investigators described as a high-risk pregnancy.

During another visit, a caseworker reported the family's Jeep smelled strongly of cat urine and was littered with debris.

By late May, DFS had received reports that the infant had lost 11% of its body weight and that Destynie had missed a medical appointment.

When caseworkers and officers returned to the property, investigators say they again were refused entry into the camper.

Travis told them to "get the f*** off his property and never come back," alleges the affidavit. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Normal Grandpa Stuff' "}]

Travis remained on speakerphone while investigators interviewed Destynie at the hospital.

When agents requested Destynie's cellphone to establish a timeline, he allegedly warned that if anyone with "a badge or a gun" came to his property, "it would be a bad day for that individual."

Both Travis and Destynie told investigators that Travis regularly cared for the children when Destynie left the residence. Travis reportedly described it as doing the "normal grandpa stuff."

[{"type":"text","text":"The search of the camper also turned up drugs."}]

Investigators say they recovered more than 21 grams of suspected marijuana, marijuana paraphernalia and a glass pipe containing white crystalline residue.

A swab collected from inside the pipe tested presumptively positive for meth and was submitted to the Wyoming State Crime Lab for confirmation.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Criminal Charges Filed"}]

Following the investigation, prosecutors filed criminal charges Wednesday in Big Horn County Circuit Court.

Travis Study, born in 1969, is charged with felony child endangerment alleging exposure to meth, along with misdemeanor counts of reckless endangering, child endangerment, possession of methamphetamine and possession of marijuana.

Destynie Study is charged with misdemeanor reckless endangering of a child and child endangerment. She pleaded not guilty Wednesday.

Big Horn County Attorney Marcia E. Bean filed a demand for a speedy trial the same day, and the court appointed counsel to represent Destynie. A pretrial conference is scheduled for Aug. 3.

The affidavit does not identify an official cause or manner of death for the infant, and the criminal complaint does not allege either defendant intentionally caused the child's death. The investigation is ongoing.

Manderson police and sign 7 9 26

<title>Big Horn Grandpa, Mom Charged After Baby Dies In 95-Degree Feces-Filled Trailer | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Big Horn County grandfather and mother have been charged after a baby died Monday in a 95-degree trailer filled with feces, garbage and a 5-gallon bucket of human waste. "The infant's diaper was completely saturated in urine,” an investigator says.

Big Horn Grandpa, Mom Charged After Baby Dies In 95-Degree Feces-Filled Trailer

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Native American Tribes

A “Yellowstone” series TV actor posted a clip Tuesday of a Christian pastor preaching on the Wind River Indian Reservation and discouraging some of the Arapaho tribal religious ceremonies, saying “Jesus is everything...A pipe cannot hear your prayers.”

, garnering 31,000 views as of Wednesday afternoon and provoking outrage, particularly around the reservation.

Christian Wassana, an enrolled Cheyenne Arapaho of Oklahoma who played Martin Kills Many on “Yellowstone," described Foundations for Nations pastor Sarah Lucas’ message as, “A pastor speaking at a church on the Rez in Wyoming condemning Sundance, one of our oldest and most sacred ceremonies.”

Wassana said, “it feels like history repeating itself, with attempts to erase and discredit our traditional way of life.”

He said everyone has the right to practice his or her own faith, “but claiming that one path is the only path while belittling and condemning ours is deeply disheartening.”

In the Northern Arapaho tribe, the flat pipe is associated with the Creator, and some sun dance rituals center on the pipe and treat it as a sacred object.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘We Know That Jesus Is Enough’"}]

The full sermon was unavailable at least as of Wednesday. The one-minute, 38-second clip depicts Lucas paraphrasing from the Bible: “tear down the altars, tear down the idols.”

She spoke of “this nation” gathering in recent days, praying. The tribal members had just conducted their sun dance ceremony. 

Lucas’ church sits on private, not tribal, land within the reservation, on the east side near Riverton. Two tribes share that reservation: the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone.

“They prayed to pipes and they prayed to the ancestors, believing this is the way for their freedom. To get free from addiction, for people to be healed… This is what this culture did this week,” said Lucas.

[{"type":"text","text":"She urged the congregation to pray."}]

“Because we know that Jesus is enough. He’s enough. It’s not Jesus-plus. It’s Jesus everything. He’s everything,” said Lucas.

She referenced people she described as tribal members who have become Christians.

“And they understand the price… when they say that publicly. The persecution that can come with them publicly,” Lucas said. “But they know that this is it. Jesus is the chain breaker. He’s the only one that we should be praying to. A pipe cannot hear your prayers.”

[{"type":"text","text":"‘This Is Religious Warfare’"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The backlash is immense."}]

Tribal members gathered Tuesday to protest in front of Riverton’s City Hall.

[{"type":"text","text":"Chris Friday, a protest leader, took to Facebook to call it a victory."}]

“SARAH LUAS (sic) openly spoke down on OUR sacred Grandpa pipe,” Friday wrote in a lengthy post featuring photographs from the protest. “She don’t know what we as Arapaho have been through, and still go through…. She should educate herself on tribal spirituality before talking on shit she doesn’t know. Because this is religious warfare.”

Friday said the protestors wanted an apology. He called Foundations for Nations leaders “not good people” and told Arapaho tribal members to boycott the church.

“Don’t go to their food bank. Don’t go to their events. Don’t let your children go,” he wrote. “We want them out of Arapaho land forever. They no longer are welcome here.”

Friday told Cowboy State Daily in a later interview that the "Grandpa pipe is our spiritual leader” and “our connection with the Creator.” 

Friday added, "They can leave, you know. They’re not welcome here anymore."

[{"type":"text","text":"Absolute Truth"}]

Desiree Henderson, a woman who described herself as a four-year member of the church’s ministry, posted a nearly 17-minute video in the church’s defense.

She said she’d never serve under a ministry that manipulates people or manipulates the gospel.

“But what most people don’t get to see when they’re not part of the inner workings of a ministry is the unbelievable sacrifices that are made. The unbelievable generosity and giving of their own time and resources that people give,” said Henderson. 

She said she knows the character of Sarah Lucas and her husband Jason, “and their heart to give” as well as the criticism and gossip they endure.

Henderson said she understands “the upset” and would align with it if she “didn’t know the Lord.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“But I do know the Lord,” said Henderson."}]

She described a dichotomy between the philosophy “of the world,” that truth is relative, and the belief that absolute truth exists.

“In the natural world, gravity is an absolute truth,” she said. “And if you defy gravity, you’re going to experience the consequences of it.”

Henderson said there are absolute, spiritual truths that exist “whether you believe it or not,” and that the Bible is the metric for finding that truth. She also encouraged people to question and study the Christian faith rather than adopt it blindly.

Numerous Facebook users posted negative comments 

[{"type":"text","text":"Didn’t Hide The Ball"}]

Foundations for Nations was overt about its beliefs and goals before the Sundance message went viral.

 a multi-cultural, multi-generational church seeking for people to “have a relationship with God, be ignited to reach people with the good news about Jesus, and work together to impact communities.”

Its statement of belief says that Jesus is “the only way to heaven and the only name that can be called upon to gain eternal life.”

The church incorporated in Wyoming and settled on the reservation in 2017.

[{"type":"text","text":"Lucas declined to comment Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily."}]

In a 2018 interview for a news feature, Lucas told local news outlet The Ranger that she and her family were building a massive play and recreation in the area of Arapahoe (town, not tribe). She said they would gear their ministry toward children who were having hardships at home.

“We inspire hope and change; we tell them their worth and their value” and teach them Biblical principles along the way, said Lucas at the time.

That summer the Lucases and visiting volunteers hosted a six-week summer program to offer kids what Lucas described as both fun and guidance.

Before launching the church, the Lucases planned it for six years. She said the goal was to help “families that are so broken that they don’t have any hope,” and to “share Jesus with them.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Figured It Would Blow Up"}]

Wassana told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday interview that he figured his post would blow up. He said he’s part Arapaho and though he descends from the southern, rather than the northern band based in Wyoming, he has family members in the north and considers the bands “one tribe.”

Wassana referenced tribal members’ darker history with past, Christian-affiliated missions, such as the boarding schools that forbade the children from speaking their native languages.

He said Lucas’ message equated to a tribal member walking into a Christian church and maligning the cross.

Lucas had, however, preached her message in a private Christian church, on private land. People attend the church voluntarily. 

Wassana acknowledged the distinction, but said the affront stems from the church opening its doors to children, in particular.

“Whenever you have somebody who’s a trusted adult, religious leader in the community saying these things, going against our ceremonies, saying they’re wrong, it can create a lot of confusion fear and shame for our children,” said Wassana. “We don’t want our young people growing up feeling like they have to choose between being accepted or embracing who they are because a leader they see is teaching those kinds of things.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Boarding Schools"}]

Indian boarding schools proliferated in the nation a century ago, many run by religious groups and funded with federal money.

Historical accounts tell of tribal leaders who wanted their kids to gain an education, a federal government that wanted to assimilate the kids and religious leaders who wanted to convert them.

Northern Arapaho sub-chief Sharp Nose sent his son, Little Chief, to the Carlisle boarding school in Pennsylvania in the late 1800s, hoping the boy could learn skills from the white man for surviving in the new culture.

Little Chief died in the school’s infirmary in 1883 and was buried on school grounds – a common occurrence for tribal children.

Jesuits came to the Wind River Indian Reservation and built St. Stephen’s Indian School in 1884.

Henderson countered claims and fears of modern-day assimilation in her video. She spoke with admiration of an East Indian (not American Indian) convert named Sundar Singh, who embraced the culture, clothing, and customs of India while preaching about Jesus, even dressing as a Hindu spiritual leader. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The Christian and Arapaho faith traditions differ from one another."}]

John G. Carter, researcher for the Smithsonian Institution, penned a Nov. 23, 1936, letter to M.W. Stirling, Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, describing “the first eye witness description of the Flat Pipe by a white man, and the first eye witness account of a ceremony held in honor of this Pipe.”

In the Arapaho creation story, wrote Carter in the treatise that followed, a global flood covered the earth, and a man walked on the water clutching a pipe. He fasted and wept. He sent animals into the water to bring land from the sea bottom to make the earth, and the turtle succeeded in that task, the account says.

“And with this the man, or the grandfather makes the land” and eventually the Arapaho people, wrote Carter.

“The myth implies that either the world was made at the Flat Pipe’s request, or because of the Flat Pipe, and in order to provide a place on which the Flat Pipe could rest,” Carter added. He said the Arapaho view the flat pipe as an “exceedingly holy object” held in the highest possible veneration and respect.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Christian tradition also involves a global flood. "}]

But first, Genesis tells that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth – and ultimately a man and a woman.

The man and woman sinned by disobeying God, but God promised to send a savior. Thousands of years later, the savior came as Jesus, who is God incarnate and who, as the son counterpart to God the Father, was also involved in creation, according to the biblical book of John.

And Jesus allowed the bloodthirsty and jealous authority figures of his day to torture him to death. He then rose from the dead, redeeming those who believe in him with his own sacrifice, and he urged his followers to tell others about him, the New Testament says. 

Preacher and reservation 2 7 8 26

<title>Arapaho Members Furious At Christian Preacher Who Spoke Against Rituals | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Several Northern Arapaho Tribe members are outraged at a Christian pastor who spoke against their religious customs and encouraged worship of Jesus instead. One Arapaho member told Cowboy State Daily that the church is "not welcome here anymore."

Arapaho Members Furious At Christian Preacher Who Spoke Against Rituals

Around Wyoming

The Wyoming Department of Health has confirmed three cases in 2026 of cyclosporiasis, or “explosive diarrhea”, according to Surveillance Epidemiologist Matt Peterson.

The illness is caused by the microscopic parasite 

Wyoming has confirmed three cases of a parasite known for causing explosive weekslong diarrhea, cramping, bloating, nausea, fatigue, weight loss, and more. The likely source is imported fresh produce, Wyoming epidemiologist Matt Peterson says.

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, December 21, 2022

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