Daily Smile

Me trying to find the bathroom switch in the middle of the night...  Courtesy, @buitengebieden

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

<title>Daily Smile: Friday, July 28, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Smile: Friday, July 28, 2023

 Me trying to find the bathroom switch in the middle of the night...  Courtesy, @buitengebieden

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

What began as an act of kindness for a pregnant woman new to Casper ended in months of anonymous threats, fake phone numbers and a digital trail investigators say stretched across Facebook, Google and multiple texting apps, prosecutors say.

A Natrona County woman is accused of stalking the foster mother who once drove her to prenatal appointments, took her grocery shopping and later cared for her infant son while she received mental health treatment.

Daji Carter, 27, was bound over to district court Tuesday after a preliminary hearing on two felony counts of stalking and two misdemeanor counts of violating a stalking protection order. She posted a $3,500 surety bond July 15 and was released from custody. 

Investigators say Carter spent months using anonymous texts, fake online accounts and spoofed phone numbers to continue contacting Ashley Monroe and members of her family after a court ordered Carter to have no contact with her.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'She Was My Friend'"}]

For Monroe, the allegations are especially painful because the relationship began with compassion.

[{"type":"text","text":"She met Carter in June 2024 while Carter was pregnant and new to Casper."}]

"I would have considered her one of my friends," Monroe told Cowboy State Daily. "She didn't have any mode of transportation, so I always offered to take her grocery shopping. We took her to do shopping for stuff she would need for the baby once he was born. She was fun to be around. She had a good sense of humor."

Monroe, a licensed foster parent, said she wasn't expecting to become Carter's foster placement.

[{"type":"text","text":"Instead, she simply wanted to help someone she knew was struggling."}]

"I was just trying to be there to support her and keep the baby safe if she needed help," Monroe said.

According to Monroe, she became concerned about Carter's well-being and requested a welfare check. After Carter agreed to seek help, the Department of Family Services arranged a voluntary placement, and Monroe began caring for the infant. Monroe said the arrangement was intended to be temporary, allowing Carter to regain custody when she was ready.

[{"type":"text","text":"The baby returned home within weeks."}]

Not long afterward, Monroe said Casper police contacted her after Carter made statements suggesting the infant had died. Officers eventually located the child safely, Monroe said, and the Department of Family Services placed him in her home again. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'That's When Things Turned South'"}]

Monroe said the relationship unraveled during a visitation dispute around Halloween 2024.

She recalled Carter becoming upset over visitation scheduling during one of the baby's medical appointments.

"She tried to take the baby and run with him from the doctor's office," Monroe said.

[{"type":"text","text":"That night, Monroe said, the messages began."}]

She said the first texts said "You're a c---, this is Daji," along with a knife and blood emojis.

The criminal affidavit similarly alleges Monroe began receiving threatening messages from anonymous Wyoming and Alabama phone numbers, many sent through internet-based texting services rather than traditional cellular numbers.

Investigators say the harassment continued for months and eventually spread to Monroe's husband and mother.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Living In Fear"}]

According to the affidavit, the messages escalated from vulgar insults to explicit threats. Monroe told investigators she received texts accusing her of taking Carter's child and messages warning that she was "going to die." 

[{"type":"text","text":"Monroe said the emotional impact reached far beyond her own safety."}]

At the time, she was caring not only for Carter's infant but for other foster children, in addition to her own family.

"I didn't sleep," she said. "Every time one of my dogs would bark ... is that Daji outside my door?"

She said the alleged harassment forced her family to install additional security measures and left her anxious.

"I found myself constantly looking over my shoulder, hesitant to engage in routine activities and struggling with stress and sleep disturbances," Monroe said.

"I didn't even feel safe letting my kids go to school," she told Cowboy State Daily.

The Department of Family Services ultimately moved Carter's son to another foster home in hopes the threats would stop.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"They did not,\" Monroe said. "}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Digital Trail "}]

Court records show the alleged stalking became an extensive digital investigation involving numerous search warrants.

The affidavit describes detectives obtaining records from Facebook, Google, TextNow, Pinger, AT&T and T-Mobile while also conducting forensic examinations of multiple electronic devices.

The various anonymous phone numbers, Gmail accounts and online messaging services ultimately pointed back to Carter, says the affidavit. 

During an interview with investigators, Carter acknowledged sending Monroe what she described as "mean" messages but denied sending many of the anonymous communications detailed in the affidavit.

"When you piss me off, I say what's on my heart," Carter allegedly told investigators.

Detectives also interviewed witnesses, reviewed phone records, and manually examined several electronic devices after extracting data from phones seized during the investigation.

Investigators concluded there was probable cause to charge Carter with felony stalking and two counts of violating a stalking protection order.

When reached by Cowboy State Daily for comment, Carter's public defender, Casper attorney Dylan Rosalez, declined to comment.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Maybe This Will Finally End'"}]

Monroe said she felt relief when Carter was charged earlier this month, believing the months of uncertainty might finally be over.

"It was just like a sigh of relief," she said. "She's being held accountable for what she's doing."

[{"type":"text","text":"But Monroe said that relief has been short-lived."}]

After Carter posted bond and the preliminary hearing concluded Tuesday, Monroe says the unwanted contact has continued, alleging that Carter even reached out to her work on Wednesday. 

"I'm feeling very frustrated currently," Monroe said. "Mostly, I worry for my kids because I'm a mama bear."

Monroe said she still believes in fostering despite everything that's happened.

She said most biological parents she has worked with eventually recognize foster parents are trying to help families reunite, not replace them.

"I'm wanting to help them, and I want them to have their children back," Monroe said. "I want them to be healthy."

Foster 3 7 30 26

<title>Casper Foster Parent Says She Was Terrorized By Bio Mom After She Took In Baby | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After taking in a friend's baby, a Casper foster mom says her family became the target of anonymous threats by the biological mother, who is charged with two stalking felonies. "I didn't even feel safe letting my kids go to school," Ashley Monroe said.

Casper Foster Parent Says She Was Terrorized By Bio Mom After She Took In Baby

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

As a young college student working as a graduate assistant at the University of Wyoming in 1976, Alan O’Hashi had landed a plum summer job along with his university gig.

He was a ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park.

A Cheyenne native, O’Hashi, now 73 and living in Boulder, Colorado, reflects on nearly a half century of being an author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker who continues to ponder and pursue topics of interest.

On the last day of July in 1976, however, his interest was just getting back to work after spending part of the weekend in Cheyenne at Cheyenne Frontier Days with a friend. Before that journey could be completed, the future news chronicler became part of one of the biggest stories of his life.

That’s when he got caught up in the sudden and devastating Big Thompson Flood, riding out the terrifying natural disaster in a Ford Pinto.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"On The Way To Work"}]

O’Hashi said his national park role first involved collecting fees at the front entrance, and then he was promoted to being a ranger at a campground.

The job came about with the help of the late U.S. Rep. Wayne Aspinall, a Democrat from Colorado.

Aspinall had taught a political science class at Hastings College in Nebraska, where O’Hashi earned his undergraduate degree.

“For whatever reason, we hit it off,” O’Hashi said. “And I asked him to write some letters to the Department of Interior on my behalf.”

Due back on duty at the park at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, O’Hashi decided to make the two-hour drive back to the park on Saturday evening, July 31, 1976.

He left Cheyenne and drove south to Loveland, Colorado, where he connected with U.S. Highway 34 to take him up to Estes Park. 

In the evening sky above the mountain peaks before him, O’Hashi said he could see a “brilliant orange stripe” with a “black ribbon on top” across the western horizon.

As he drove his Ford Pinto wagon up toward the “narrows” of Big Thompson canyon, he became aware that everybody else was driving east. He alone was going west.

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

“A Colorado Highway Patrol officer, or maybe a county sheriff’s deputy, waved me down saying maybe I better turn around up at Drake, which wasn’t too far from where I was, saying there was some bad water ahead,” O’Hashi told Cowboy State Daily. “And so, I kind of drove up and there was a trickle of water, and I slowed down.”

He understood that U.S. Highway 34 runs alongside the Big Thompson River for its length into Estes Park.

As he continued toward Drake to find space enough to turn around on the narrow highway he was suddenly met with a “big wall of water” that slammed into his Pinto.

Looking out the window, he could see uprooted trees floating by, along with propane gas tanks. After that, rocks started thumping against his car.

He remembers being in a low part of the road and seeing a speed limit sign and the top “foot” of the sign.

He witnessed a “lovely car” coming toward him eastbound that went off the edge of the road across from him and into the river below.

Thinking about what he should do, O’Hashi said a floating portable toilet snagged onto his Pinto bumper and carried the car to the canyon wall instead of “over the edge.”

“So, I climbed out the driver’s-side window and waited,” he said. “I was in maybe knee-deep or not-quite-waist-deep water.”

O’Hashi said he started walking up an incline when a Colorado Department of Transportation truck showed up headed westbound looking for people who needed help.

He was able to join others in the back of the truck who had found themselves stranded with the waters rising.

The truck took them to higher ground at Rainbow Bend where there was a gas station, cabins and a little store. That’s where O’Hashi spent the rest of the night.

If that Department of Transportation truck had not shown up, O’Hashi said he would have had to try and climb up the canyon wall.

It wasn’t until the next day he got a true sense of what he had survived.

“We got up the next morning and saw the aftermath of the flood,” he said.

O’Hashi said he never learned what happened to the people in the car that went over the edge, but believes the car was from Loveland because of the license plate he observed before it vanished.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Disaster Unfolds"}]

That morning revealed to O’Hashi and the nation one of the worst floods in Colorado’s history. It happened as the state was preparing for its 100th birthday.

On Aug 2, 1976, The New York Times front page headline proclaimed: “65 Killed as Rains Flood Colorado Recreation Area.”

But the numbers would climb much higher in succeeding days until ultimately reaching 144 dead.

A story in the Grand Junction, Colorado, newspaper The Daily Sentinel on Aug. 5, 1976, projected total damage would hit $50 million.

That figure would be revised downward to $35 million to $40 million. Bridges and roadways, houses, and livelihoods were washed away in a matter of minutes. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Helicopter Drop Zone"}]

O’Hashi said that Sunday Aug. 1, his major concern was getting out of the flood zone.

He and some other flood survivors who were at the gas station and store noticed a Chinook helicopter flying around.

They got some white paint and created a circle for a drop zone. The helicopter saw it and landed, allowing him and several others to get flown down to Loveland, where they were housed in a gym.

He said it was in Sunday afternoon at that point and he knew his parents, who then lived in Laramie, would try to find him.

With all the roads closed and phone lines down, he looked for a solution. He found it in a group who had a car and were planning to drive to Cheyenne.

O’Hashi said he hitched a ride and was dropped off at a college classmate’s home in the city. He tried to call his parents in Laramie to learn that they had driven to Loveland to try and find him.

“My parents came down and found I wasn’t in Loveland,” he said. “And then they must have given them word that I was headed to my friend’s house, and that’s where we hooked up.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Second Chance"}]

About 10 days after being caught in the Big Thompson Flood, O’Hashi said he went back to Rocky Mountain National Park and continued to work the rest of the summer. He said the experience of being in the disaster changed him.

“I was actually given a second chance, and I was more grateful,” he said.

A memorial stone erected along Highway 34 on July 31, 2001, the 25th anniversary of the flood, recounted how a thunderstorm stalled over the canyon in 1976 sending the deluge down among the rocks and claiming the lives of dozens and changing the lives of many others.

O’Hashi said he thinks about the choices that led to him being part of that history.

He has made other choices in life that have put him in tight spots as well. On July 31, 1976, he said decided to try and get back to work Saturday night rather than drive in early Sunday morning.

As disasters continue to happen — such as the recent flooding in Kerr County, Texas, or a Dec. 30, 2021, Boulder County wildfire that claimed two lives, caused a massive evacuation and destroyed nearly 1,000 homes — O’Hashi said he’s come to understand that things happen in life, and the government will never act fast enough.

“It’s a matter of being prepared, like if you are in an urban area, get to know your neighbors and talk about what your options might be if something happens,” he said. “It’s hard to predict how everyone is going to react under pressure.

“I’m trying to figure out what we can do to make it less problematic when something like this happens.”

Following the summer of 1976, O’Hashi said he never completed his graduate degree at the University of Wyoming because before he finished his graduate thesis, he got his first “real job” in Gillette.

With his insurance settlement on the Pinto, he bought another Pinto station wagon.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Another Escape"}]

While working in Gillette, that Pinto was rear-ended. O’Hashi said it was known at the time that the car had a problem with exploding gas tanks. His did not explode.

Another twist of being in the right place at the wrong time happened in 1997 when he was flying out of Houston on Continental Airlines and had left his airline ticket in the men’s bathroom.

He nearly missed his plane but was allowed to board after a janitor found it and paged him. The gateway door to the plane had already been closed, but they opened it and allowed him to board.

Once in the air, the plane experienced an emergency and landed in Oklahoma City, he said. He later was told it was a cockpit fire.

“It’s absolute chaos inside of an airplane,” he said. “No one has time to barely put on their seat belts, put their trays back and their seats in an upright position. It was total mass chaos inside with flight attendants tumbling down the aisle and books flying all over the place.”

His pondering of the incident is that maybe by getting onboard it changed the outcome, that his “presence” on the plane may have resulted in it not going down.

Even if somebody’s else’s time was up, his was not.

O’Hashi believes that disasters can have an upside along with the loss and upheaval that results from the event. He shared about it in a blog.

“If there’s one strange gift disasters leave in their wake,” he wrote. “They bring people together who might otherwise never share a meal, a conversation, or even a glance.”

Alan O Hashi and the flood 7 15 25

<title>50 Years Ago: Floating Toilet Saved Cheyenne Man In Devastating Big Thompson Flood | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Cheyenne native Alan O’Hashi vividly remembers being caught in the canyon when the Big Thompson Flood, the deadliest flood in Colorado history, hit on July 31, 1976. He survived when a floating portable toilet snagged his car and carried it to safety.

50 Years Ago: Floating Toilet Saved Cheyenne Man In Devastating Big Thompson Flood

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

A 28-year-old Australian man has been found dead near Grand Teton National Park.

Teton County Search and Rescue (TCSAR) recovered the body of the unidentified man  Wednesday morning. He was found in an area known as The Wigwams on the west slope of the Tetons.

According to TCSAR, the man is believed to have died from a fall from “a steep, high-altitude ridgeline” that separates Grand Teton National Park and the Jedediah Smith Wilderness.

“TCSAR sends its sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased and wishes to express its gratitude to the partnering federal agencies who assisted in the investigation,” the agency said in a statement.

Cowboy State Daily could not reach TCSAR or Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr by the time of publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Difficult Search"}]

According to the information released by TCSAR, the Australian man was attempting a thru-hike of the Continental Divide Trail, a 3,028-mile route that stretches across the Rockies from Alberta, Canada, to Chihuahua, Mexico.

The victim started from Canada and headed south, keeping his family informed of his progress via a Garmin satellite device.

By July 19, he reached Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park and sent a message with his intended route through the Tetons and into the Wind River Basin. 

The last communication the family received was a check-in from his device without coordinates or a message. Along with a video he sent via Facebook, his family placed him somewhere in Grand Teton National Park.

After four days without any updates, the victim’s family contacted Grand Teton officials July 27.

Using the Garmin device, it was determined that the July 23 check-in had been sent near The Wigwams in Teton County, near but outside the western boundary of then park.

At this point, TCSAR took over the search and rescue operation. A short-haul team was assembled to reach The Wigwams via helicopter Wednesday morning.

The victim’s body was found below a ridge south of North Wigwam Peak. He was located from the air because of his bright orange backpack.

The body was recovered and transported to the Teton County Coroner’s Office.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Tough Trail"}]

Hiking the entire Continental Divide Trail can take between two and seven months.

Thru-hikers attempt to do it continuously, from start to end, in one attempt. They only stop to sleep or resupply in communities along the route.

Marty Lee of Socorro, New Mexico, was hiking the Wyoming section of the Continental Divide Trail when he was 69 years old. 

 how thru-hikers regularly powered past him.

“Out in the Great Divide Basin, I was making 22-23 miles a day, but thru-hikers were blowing by me," he said in July 2023.

Lee was section hiking, taking multiple years to complete the Continental Divide Trail. By July 23, he’d finished the stretches in New Mexico and Colorado, and was hoping to finish the Wyoming and Idaho sections that summer.

 of the Appalachian Trail in 2024. He was averaging 18 to 22 miles every day, and it was an ordeal.

“In the first four months I wasn't sick, I didn't twist my ankle and had no major injuries, but I ended up pushing myself to the finish,” he said. “It was like running a marathon, and on your very last corner, you crash into the drinks table, and you end up having to crawl across the finish line.”

He reached the end of the trail, Mount Katahdin in Maine, on Oct. 6, 2024. It had taken him five months to get there.

“When I made my way up to Katahdin and saw the sign, it was kind of strange,” he said. “It was a total non-event. It was like, ‘There's the sign, let's go get my pictures and get off the mountain.’ I think I was just so ready to be done.”

According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy

, only 1 in 4 people who attempt a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail actually finish it. No similar statistics exist for the Continental Divide Trail.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More, More, More"}]

TCSAR has been busy in 2026. Its volunteers respond to every call, but at the cost of significant impacts on personnel and resources.

Of the 4,990 search and rescue missions in Wyoming between 2009 and 2026, 1,205 were

. Lincoln County was a distant second with 583 missions during the same period.

TCSAR can recover some of its costs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which allows it to obtain grants and donations. Other funds are available, but they’re distributed to SAR teams throughout the state via the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security.

TCSAR’s call numbers jumped in 2021 and have stayed relatively high since. The 64 calls between Dec.1, 2024, and May 31, 2025, used to be as many as the agency got in an entire year.

That correlates with the steady growth of the outdoor recreation industry, which s

. That likely means more calls, more expenses, and more asked of volunteers going forward.

TCSAR hasn’t released the name of the Australian man who died in the Tetons, but statistics say that 72% of their calls are for males.

Demographically, 16- to 30-year-olds accounted for 33% of the rescues, followed by 31-to 45-year-olds, with 29%.

Nevertheless, TCSAR’s all-volunteer force will always mobilize as quickly as they can. No matter where or what, the job gets done.

“Rescues come in all shapes and sizes,” TCSAR Chief Advisor Cody Lockhart told Cowboy State Daily in July 2025. “We’re there to give you a hand without judgment.”

Teton County Search and Rescue

<title>Australian Man Dies Near Grand Teton While Hiking Continental Divide Trail | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Teton County Search and Rescue recovered the body of an unidentified Australian man in the Teton Range on Wednesday. The man, who was attempting a thru-hike of the Continental Divide Trail, is believed to have died from a fall off a ridgeline.

Australian Man Dies Near Grand Teton While Hiking Continental Divide Trail

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Wyoming-based U.S. House candidate Reid Rasner says a former sheriff’s deputy threatened him. The former deputy denies it adamantly.

They both provided screenshots potentially supporting their claims. The Torrington Police Department says it's investigating.

Rasner dispatched a statement and later conducted a phone interview Wednesday, alleging that 

former Goshen County sheriff’s deputy Aaron Mose – who parted ways with the department in 2024 – called him at 8:21 a.m. Sunday.

The statement Rasner’s attorney Bill Fix reportedly sent to law enforcement Wednesday morning alleges that Mose said, “Listen, we ran your ass outta Goshen County last week, and if you ever come back through here again, you better watch your back.”

Mose in a Wednesday phone interview adamantly denied making any such statement. He sent Cowboy State Daily what appears to be a screenshot of his phone carrier’s call log, showing no calls made between 10:35 p.m. Saturday and 1:35 p.m. Sunday.

Rasner’s team sent its own screenshot of what appears to be his phone’s call log, with unrelated phone calls blurred, showing an incoming call from Mose’s number at 8:21 a.m. on an unspecified day.

Cowboy State Daily ran both images through a free AI content detector, isgen.ai.

The site registered Mose’s screenshot as 100% human content. It registered the call log shot from Rasner’s team as 89% human and “likely original” – a score that could be less than perfect due to the privacy blurs on the other phone numbers.

[{"type":"text","text":"The stakes might be high."}]

A person who makes a false report to law enforcement can be charged with false reporting, and a person who lies to law enforcement in an investigation can be charged with interference, both misdemeanors punishable by jail time.

U.S. House candidate Reid Rasner's attorney filed a police report Wednesday on a Chuck Gray supporter and former sheriff's deputy for allegedly threatening Rasner. The former deputy denies making a threat. Torrington police are investigating.

Daily Smile: Friday, July 28, 2023

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