Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Let's go swimming with the dog!!!"}]

Smile 7 14 23

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

<title>Daily Smile: Friday, July 14, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Let's go swimming with the dog!!!

Daily Smile: Friday, July 14, 2023

Jimmy orr

Jimmy Orr

Outdoors

Wildlife

A California man said he was dragged 20-30 feet by a grizzly before it finally let him go in an attack he sustained late last month in Glacier National Park.

The report of the attack, which up until now has been scant of specifics, has turned vivid with Daniel Crago discussing the blow-by-blow of his bear encounter on a 

Crago says he was on his last day of a hiking trip when he peeled away from his friend to “take in some views.”

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s when he spotted a “smaller” grizzly."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then the worst thing happened: he spotted a larger grizzly."}]

“I did as you’re told, I alerted the bear,” he said, which was about 15 feet away.

[{"type":"text","text":"That did no good."}]

“At that point, I was so close it likely frightened the bear,” he said. “As soon as it saw me, it charged down and attacked me.”

“I threw my arm up, it bit my arm, dragged me about 20-30 feet, and took off,” he said in the post.

The National Park Service said park employees believe that loud rushing water made it difficult for the hiker or the bears to detect each other.

Calling the experience “terrifying,” Crago said he was fortunate in that a pediatrician was in the area who was able to stabilize the arm while another hiker made noises in an attempt to keep the bears from coming back.

[{"type":"text","text":"The bears did not return."}]

Another hiker, he said, alerted emergency services and a helicopter airlifted him to nearby hospital in Kalispell.

He’s had three surgeries so far, he said, and is expecting at least one more.

"I am facing significant medical bills from the treatment and care I received," he said. "The costs are overwhelming, and I am reaching out for help to cover these expenses so I can continue my recovery."

Retired ecologist Chuck Neal of Cody, who frequently hikes solo in grizzly country, told Cowboy State Daily that hiking in Glacier Park demands extra alertness.

“Encounters can happen at just a few yards away” if hikers aren’t paying keen attention, Neal said.

“It’s a high-quality habitat for bears. It’s better habitat for bears than Yellowstone is” and tends to attract a younger crowd, he said.

“Those younger hikers go barreling up those trails without paying that much attention,” Neal said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Busy Season For Bear Attacks"}]

Crago’s is the latest of multiple bear encounters with humans in the region so far this season.

Earlier in the month, Glacier Park reported its 

 since 1998 when the body of Florida resident Anthony Pollio, 33, was found May 6 two days after he was reported missing.

His body was found about 50 feet from the trail he’d apparently been hiking on.

 when they were attacked by a female grizzly with cubs near Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.

On May 26, a man running on a trail in British Columbia, Canada, was attacked by a female black bear with two cubs.

Outdoor adventurer Michael Hodges was photographing grizzlies in the Glacier Park backcountry on the day that Pollio’s body was discovered about 15 miles away.

Later, he was on the same trail where the alleged May 28 bear attack was reported.

“I was up on the trail the week of May 6 and saw many grizzlies,” he stated in a text message to Cowboy State Daily last week.

“I warned hikers from California and Texas at the trailhead that there was an unusual number of griz, and to be extra alert,” stated Hodges, a novelist and internet personality.

Daniel crago 6 5 26

<title>California Man Says Grizzly Dragged Him 30 Feet In Glacier National Park Attack | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A California hiker said after he surprised two grizzlies last month on a trail in Glacier National Park, the larger bear bit through his arm and dragged him 30 feet. “I did as you’re told, I alerted the bear,” he said, but the bear attacked him anyway.

California Man Says Grizzly Dragged Him 30 Feet In Glacier National Park Attack

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Washington man is facing 14 wildlife-related criminal charges in Campbell County after Wyoming investigators say years-old Instagram videos, voice messages and cellphone data uncovered evidence of alleged illegal hunting trips that stretched back more than a decade.

Court records filed in Campbell County allege Bobby Chuck Ephrem, 48, illegally killed antelope and mule deer in Wyoming in 2014, 2015 and 2020, sometimes from vehicles, sometimes without licenses and at least once using a .22-caliber pistol that investigators say was illegal for taking big game.

The charges stem from an Idaho wildlife investigation that eventually led Wyoming Game and Fish investigators to social media posts, archived videos and cellphone extractions that they say show hunting activity in Campbell County.

An arrest warrant was issued June 4, 2025. Ephrem later appeared in Campbell County Circuit Court for an initial appearance on Tuesday, where bond was set at $75,000. Court records show he posted a surety bond on Wednesday.

As a condition of release, Ephrem is not allowed to leave Campbell County and is barred from hunting, fishing, trapping, collecting shed antlers or accompanying anyone engaged in hunting or fishing activities while the case is pending.

A voicemail seeking comment from the Campbell County Attorney's Office was not returned before publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Case Built From Phones And Social Media"}]

The investigation began in April 2024 when Idaho conservation officers shared information uncovered during an ongoing wildlife investigation, according to an affidavit filed by Wyoming Game and Fish Investigator Daniel Beach.

Investigators say Instagram videos, voice messages, and other evidence pointed them toward multiple incidents involving antelope and mule deer.

Beach wrote that he later traveled to Oregon in June 2024 to assist Oregon State Police while that agency executed a search warrant at Ephrem's home.

During the search and interview, investigators say Ephrem talked about several mounted animals displayed in his home and admitted to killing some of them in Wyoming.

The affidavit shows Wyoming investigators subsequently reviewed cellphone extraction data, Instagram videos and archived voice messages that they believe corroborated those admissions.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'No Permission, Just Shoot'"}]

Some of the most serious allegations center on an October 2020 antelope hunt in Campbell County.

Investigators discovered Instagram voice messages sent from Ephrem's account that referenced plans to hunt antelope in Wyoming.

One message cited in the charging documents read, "We're going antelope hunting today."

Another allegedly said, "No, just drive around and shoot shit. No permission, just shoot."

Investigators say they later identified the location shown in one of the videos as private property owned by Peabody Caballo Mining LLC south of Gillette.

Neither the company nor the rancher leasing the pasture granted permission for the hunting activity depicted in the videos, wrote Beach. 

In another video, investigators say Ephrem can be seen firing a rifle at antelope from inside a vehicle. 

Investigators also allege the video showed Ephrem handing the rifle to a younger passenger.

The charging documents include allegations of wanton destruction of antelope, taking big game from a vehicle, trespassing to hunt and accessory counts connected to those offenses.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The .22-Caliber Pistol Allegation"}]

A separate video described in the affidavit forms the basis for another series of charges.

Investigators say the recording showed Ephrem driving a Dodge Ram pickup while firing a pistol at multiple antelope from the roadway and adjacent ditch.

Beach wrote they later determined the firearm appeared to be a GSG 1911-style .22-caliber pistol, and that Ephrem fired 10 rounds at several antelope from close range.

During a June 2024 interview, Ephrem said, "I remember shooting, yes, got it.'" 

The case includes charges alleging illegal use of a firearm for taking big game, wanton destruction and taking big game from a vehicle.

Investigators also allege another man, who they say appeared in some of the videos, later confirmed witnessing portions of the hunt during a recorded interview.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Allegations Reach Back To 2014"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The investigation didn't stop with the 2020 videos."}]

Cellphone data allegedly connected Ephrem to an antelope killed in 2015 and a mule deer killed in 2014.

Beach wrote that Ephrem admitted during a 2024 interview to those killings. 

Wyoming licensing records showed Ephrem did not possess licenses for those species during the years in question, says investigators, and that Ephrem improperly used or transferred hunting licenses connected to his son during some of the incidents.

Cellphone photographs, taxidermy records and statements made during interviews were used to support those allegations.

The charges remain allegations. Ephrem has not been convicted, and the case will proceed through Wyoming's court system. His next expected appearance will be held within about 10 days for a preliminary hearing. 

Campell county pronghorn 4 5 26

<title>'No Permission, Just Shoot': Instagram Videos Lead To Wyoming Poaching Charges | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Washington man faces 14 Wyoming poaching-related charges after Game and Fish investigators say Instagram videos and phone data exposed illegal hunts over more than 10 years. “No permission, just shoot,” the man messaged, Game and Fish says.

'No Permission, Just Shoot': Instagram Videos Lead To Wyoming Poaching Charges

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Energy

Green

CHEYENNE — Protests and rallies are something f

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"In fact, Thursday marked a first for him."}]

Stephens, whose family has what he describes as a “modest” cow-calf operation south of Glenrock that’s been there since 1910, said he’s spent most of his life avoiding microphones and politics. 

But as wind projects have encircled his part of the county, he felt he could no longer afford not to get involved.

“We’ve got surrounded by wind farms,” he told a crowd gathered Thursday at the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne to call for more study of a wind wall that’s sprung up across a 200-mile swath of southeast Wyoming. 

“If you look at Converse County right now, between the farms that are there and the ones that are proposed, it’s 200,000 acres,” he said. "That’s a lot. And then this 

 showed up. Half of it’s going to be on state land. That was enough for me.”

When he started talking to neighbors, Stephens learned how widespread wind farms had become. That made him feel uneasy. 

So, he decided to come and be part of what was his first-ever rally, even though it meant his family’s ranch would be short-handed that day. 

“I have talked to ranchers all around,” he said. “I’ve talked to 68 ranchers, and there’s 50-some against it, three who won’t say, and six who are for it,” he said. “And this is the ranchers all the way around me. And they don’t have to save the ranch. They’ll go to work and do whatever they need to do to make it.”

At a State Board of Land Commissioners meeting in Douglas that Stephens helped arrange, he saw 200-some people in the crowd, with another 100 or so on Zoom, all against more wind in Wyoming. 

More Than 3,500 Signatures On Petition So Far

For the rally on Thursday, Stephens brought his daughter-in-law Kelsey and two grandchildren, Emory and Acelynn, to Cheyenne. 

“My husband and I built our home with our own two hands alongside family and friends,” Kelsey told the crowd. “We chose this place intentionally for the land, the view, and the life it allows us to live. 

"Picture a summer evening on our front porch — crickets and frogs singing, the smell of freshly cut hay in the air, and the red hills glowing as the sun sets. That’s a view that will take your breath away.”

And it’s exactly where a new wind farm plans to locate.

A petition the family has helped circulate has so far gathered 1,778 signatures from Converse County residents alone, Emory told the crowd, with another 500 from Douglas and another 1,241 coming from Glenrock and nearby areas. That’s more than 3,500 signatures so far.

About 98% of those are from Wyoming residents, Emory added. 

“Based on the most recent available data, Converse County generates approximately 43% of Wyoming wind power and electricity, but only receives 12% of the wind generation tax revenue,” she said. “That’s a small fraction of the benefits compared to what it produces for many residents.”

For her, the point of the rally in Cheyenne was all about making sure Wyoming people, including ranchers, have a say in the decisions that are affecting them.

On a map taped to her kitchen table, Cheyenne Realtor and Dereemer Ranch family member Wendy Volk has plotted an informal picture of what Wyoming’s wind tower surge looks like on the land. 

She started the map a little more than a year ago after receiving a letter notifying her that one or more neighbors planned to rezone their land from agricultural to industrial. The map she received with the notice was all but incomprehensible.

There was a dot for Cheyenne in the right-hand corner of the page and another dot in the lefthand corner for Laramie. Chugwater floated near the top of the page.

“Smack dab in the middle of that was this postage-size stamp, depicting this project,” she said. “And I’m a real estate agent, but I couldn’t make heads or tail of that map.”

A different page offered an enlargement of the postage stamp, a 56,000-acre tract dotted with 189 wind turbines, crisscrossed with access roads and transmission lines, as well as symbols for substations. 

But it was still impossible to tell where her family’s property was in relation to all of that.

She reached out to the company for a better map, and that wasn’t as straightforward as she had expected.

“I kept being very tenacious, asking questions, and then the gentleman said I have to go through legal,” she said. “He eventually sent me a better map, which he thought didn’t show that we were even touching.”

With the improved map, though, Volk finally verified that the project was about 1,000 feet off of her property line, as well as some of her neighbors. That’s when she started looking for a bigger picture. 

She hadn’t set out to become an expert on Wyoming’s industrial siting laws or federal permits. She just wanted to see a master map of all the projects to understand their overall footprint on the land. 

She’d noticed, now that her own property was directly affected, that there were an awful lot of wind projects popping up all over the place. She figured someone, somewhere would already have created such a map at the state level.

Nope. And further, there had been no state-level look at the cumulative effects of all these many wind projects.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"So she decided to make her own."}]

“I started putting pink sticky notes on a Wyoming map anytime someone mentioned a wind or solar project,” she said. “All of a sudden, the sticky notes were like connecting dots. And that’s when I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is an entire wall of wind projects that will stretch easily from Casper to Cheyenne and from Cheyenne to Rawlins. It’s just going to fill in and create a triangle.'”

It will be a massive “wind wall” that industrializes well over 200 miles of southeastern Wyoming rangeland and migration corridors, she said.

In Volk’s mind, the problem with that isn’t just any one wind farm in particular. It’s that no one at the state level is looking at the whole picture. 

Across southeast Wyoming, ranchers like Volk and her family rarely show up at hearings in their own communities, much less drive hours to Cheyenne to attend Industrial Siting Council meetings or stand on the Capitol steps for something like a rally.

Making time to be in Cheyenne means leaving their families shorthanded for tasks involving animals and fields. 

But Thursday, Stephens and Volk were there with other ranching families to help make a statement about what they feel is unprecedented and unconstrained growth of wind towers in Wyoming.

“These are not protest kind of people,” fourth-generation Wyomingite and Albany County Conservancy founder Anne Brande told Cowboy State Daily. “But they are calling me from Niobrara County, from Chugwater, from Wheatland, from Casper, from Goshen. 

"People are just tired of these (wind turbines) in these rural communities. They want to have a state conversation about it.”

Brande’s group isn’t asking to stop every wind turbine, but they want tougher siting scrutiny, as well as a cumulative impact review that looks at how so many wind turbines showing up all at once will affect wildlife, migration corridors, viewsheds, agricultural land, and rural communities across Wyoming. 

Wind turbines have already killed a number of golden eagles, Brande said. 

“We’ve been trying to place a golden eagle nest cam,” she said. “We think that’d be a fun project, but we’re having a hard time locating a viable nest, a viable golden eagle nest, and that’s a very different narrative than what we had even two, three years ago.”

Federal policy analyst David Wojick has spent the past two years digging into what wind development is doing to golden eagles across the American West.

He says the Eagle Protection Act is misnamed and is actually a license to kill a certain number of golden eagles every time a project gets a permit. That’s because each permit allows a certain amount of eagle “take” or deaths.

“There’s supposedly a program whereby every eagle that’s killed by a wind turbine, 1.2 golden eagles are saved from electrocution, because the wind people pay to have power poles somewhere in the country fixed,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s all false, by the way. And that’s the thing that I’m the most focused on.”

Wojick has been involved in broad environmental impact assessments of offshore wind in Wales for the last six or so years, and said that’s what he believes Wyoming needs to do about its wind wall.

“We’ve got this huge number of projects, some of which are built, some of which are under construction, and a whole bunch of which have been applied for in various processes,” he said. “And they’re being treated individually. The cumulative effect is obvious, and could be devastating.”

Wojick sees an “ecological death trap” phenomenon with such a widespread swath of land being taken up by wind towers. 

“Somebody’s got to be looking at that,” he said. “The feds should be looking at it. I don’t know if there’s some provision in Wyoming wildlife law for this, but if there isn’t, then the governor should just like convene a task force or committee to look at this.”

Wojick has seen studies showing the number of golden eagles killed by wind turbines has doubled in the Rocky Mountain West. 

He’s also heard ornithologist and bird biologist Bryan Bedrosian’s say that Wyoming’s golden eagle population has dropped by 30% over the last 20 years. Bedrosian is founder of Sporting Lead-Free, as well as conservation director at Teton Raptors Center.

“When you’ve got around 1,500 turbines at this point and with another 1,500 coming, I mean you could wipe (golden eagles) out, quite literally,” Wojick said. “You need to have a moratorium until somebody decides how many eagles you’re prepared to kill.”

What’s The Legacy For Future Generations?

For ranchers like Stephens and Volk, the wind wall isn’t theoretical. It’s either become the view from their front porches, or will be soon.

They’re not asking to turn back the clock on every wind turbine in the state. They just want a thoughtful look at the big picture, instead of a piecemeal approach.

“Governor Gordon’s recent executive order just yesterday regarding data center development recognizes many of these same concerns,” Volk said. “It acknowledges the importance of stewardship, water resources, wildlife, local communities and the entire region. 

"If Wyoming recognizes the need to evaluate cumulative impacts associated with large-scale data center development, then we should be willing to examine the cumulative impacts of industrial corridors forming across southeastern Wyoming.”

The rally, she added, is not about protesting energy development. 

“It’s about making sure Wyoming residents have a voice and the cumulative effects of these projects are honestly evaluated before our landscapes are permanently changed,” she said. “Today, I respectfully ask our city council members, our county commissioners, our state legislators, our state agencies, governing boards to consider the bigger picture, because southeastern Wyoming is not an empty space on a map. 

"It is ranch land, it is wildlife habitat, it is open space, and it is our heritage.”

Wyoming has a responsibility, she added. to be good stewards of that land, and to consider carefully the legacy that will be left to future generations, a legacy she’s sketched out in pink sticky notes that paint what she feels will be a disquieting story.

Wind rally 20260604 121506 6 4 26

<title>Wyoming Ranchers Rally Against 'Wind Wall' Of Turbines Across The State | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming ranchers rallied at the state Capitol on Thursday demanding action against what they call a “wind wall” of turbines across the state. “We’ve got surrounded by wind farms,” said one rancher about wind power and its impact on Wyoming’s rural future.

Wyoming Ranchers Rally Against 'Wind Wall' Of Turbines Across The State

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

Law Enforcement

For more than 30 years, the body of an unidentified woman discovered in the remote desert along Interstate 80 in rural Nevada has kept her secrets hidden.

The woman, known colloquially as “Shafter Jane Doe,” had been beaten and shot in the chest and back.

Her nude body was posed on the ground, arms extended to either side in the shape of a cross with legs slightly parted.

Less than a week after her death on Nov. 16, 1993, a geologist who had pulled off at the remote Shafter exit off I-80 to stretch his legs discovered her body, according to news reports from the time.

Later investigation in 2010 revealed that the woman had spent seven months in Afton, Wyoming, which was determined through the isotope testing. 

For years, her donated headstone has read, “Who Am I?”

Now more than 32 years after the gruesome discovery, authorities finally have an answer.  

Her name is Marion Hertha Alexander, who was a German immigrant who moved to California with her family in 1972.

After a decades-long investigation, members of the Elko County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement partners told the Elko County Commissioners on Thursday afternoon that they identified her through the use of advanced DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy.

The decades-long investigation also revealed the woman was in Afton, Wyoming, for about seven months before she was murdered. 

Alexander left home around age 18, and her family told investigators that Alexander was a free spirit who liked to drift around.

Her family questioned where she had gone, but given her lifestyle, they did not report her missing to law enforcement.

Her living family members were notified of the identification in January of this year, Elko County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Douglas Fisher stated, and continue to be in touch with law enforcement.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Justice"}]

Her suspected murderer, however, will not see justice.

Authorities were closing in on Roger Lee Durkee of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who was identified through semen found on a vaginal swab that yielded a full DNA profile, authorities said.

The profile was run through the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) but did not result in a match, so the Elko County Sheriff’s Office contracted a private group to perform forensic genetic genealogy analysis in February 2022 that led to Durkee as a potential suspect.

Further investigation indicated that Durkee was likely the murderer, but as detectives began planning their trip to Wisconsin to make an arrest, they learned that Durkee had died on Nov. 13, 2025.

He died within 14 days of detectives learning Alexander’s identity.

Now, however, Alexander will be properly laid to rest.

The Elko Sheriff’s Office asked the commission — and were granted — money to buy a proper headstone to finally put her to rest.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Piecing Together Mystery"}]

Authorities worked for decades to identify Alexander through the use of several forensic tools.

Initially when she was discovered, Alexander’s face was beaten beyond recognition, so the FBI created a computer-generated image of her likeness to help local authorities attempt to identify her, according to a 1993 article by the Elko Daily Free Press.

Along with her image, authorities had little else to go on.

They were able to extract a partial print from her right thumb, which did not find a match in any federal databases.

The only other identifying characteristics were what appeared to be a burn scar or birth mark on her right calf, pink fingernails that looked to be professionally done and a tooth that had undergone a partial root canal, according to the same article.

A portion of her skull was sent to the Minnesota State Crime Lab, according to reporting from the Casper-Star Tribune, where her DNA was extracted and run through databases with no match.

They turned to the media and a national crime show, but no viable leads to her identity were forthcoming.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Human Time Capsule"}]

A big break came nearly two decades later with the advancement of using stable isotopes that tracked Alexander to Afton, Wyoming.

This discovery came in 2010 when scientists at Utah State University were able to determine she had spent the past seven months in Afton by analyzing isotopes in her hair that traced her to the area.

Though not new science, this application of stable isotope analysis has transformed how law enforcement solves cold cases, said Christy Mancuso, an assistant research professor at the University of New Mexico and sales representative for Thermo Fisher Scientific.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Mancuso knows the science well."}]

She got her doctorate degree in biology from the University of Utah and was affiliated with the stable isotope lab, where her thesis advisor, Jim Ehleringer, started the now-shuttered IsoForensics lab.

She wasn’t familiar with Alexander’s case, but said that stable isotope analysis is an excellent tool for helping to identify remains.

Essentially, humans are like time capsules of chemical information that are stored within one’s bones, teeth and hair, Mancuso said, which helps trace that person to a generalized location.

More than 32 years after her body was found along I-80, the woman known as “Shafter Jane Doe” has been identified, officials announced Thursday. Her nude body was posed on the ground, arms extended to either side in the shape of a cross.

Daily Smile: Friday, July 14, 2023

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