One More For The Road

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

<title>One More For The Road: Tuesday, August 22, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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One More For The Road: Tuesday, August 22, 2023

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

Andrew Rossi

Business

The first presence of the dreaded New World screwworm in America since 1968 represents an “immediate threat” to Wyoming’s ranchers and owners of horses and pets, Wyoming’s state veterinarian said Friday.

“We don't know that it won't show up tomorrow,” said Hallie Hasel. "We don't know that it might not show up for six months. It may not show up at all, but we would consider screwworm something that we immediately need to start watching out for," she said.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed a 3-week-old calf in La Pryor, Texas, near San Antonio, was infested with the flesh-eating larvae of the parasitic fly.

Another case of screwworm had been confirmed in Mexico, 25 miles from the U.S. border, a week earlier. 

La Pryor is more than 1,000 miles away from Wyoming, but Hasel said the long distance that doesn’t mean ranchers should underestimate the spread of screwworm. 

[{"type":"text","text":"If anything, she added, they need to be more on their guard than ever."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The Screwworm Situation"}]

. Hasel was the chair of a symposium on the preparedness, prevention, and response to screwworm in September 2025, which discussed the fly's anticipated return to the U.S. at some point in the near future.

“The United States has been preparing for this since about 2024, when we knew that the screwworm was moving north out of Panama,” she said. “We were aware there was a problem and needed to start preparing immediately, which the federal government and several states did.”

As of Friday, the USDA has taken “immediate action” to contain and stop the potential spread of screwworm. They’ve established a 12-mile "infested zone" around the detection site and have implemented additional proactive measures in coordination with the Texas Animal Health Commission.

Hasel spoke highly of the federal and state response to this confirmed case of screwworm.

“Texas has been implementing an excellent program to make sure that they stop screwworm right where it's at,” she said. “We have a lot of faith in their ability to stop it right where it's at.”

With the current programs in place, Hasel didn’t anticipate screwworm spreading rapidly into the rest of the country, let alone into Wyoming, in the near future.

“We don't expect it to come out of South Texas anytime soon,” she said.

However, that doesn’t mean the threat of screwworm isn’t worth taking seriously.

[{"type":"text","text":"Not A Food Issue"}]

Gene Copenhaver, president of the National Cattle and Beef Association, was in Cody on Friday for the Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show. He took time to discuss the screwworm case in Texas that morning.

“There is a concern, but we've been expecting this for over a year,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “We thought it'd come last summer, so it gave a lot of time to get ready for it.”

Copenhaver agreed with Hasel’s assessment of the current situation. While there isn’t much concern about screwworm spreading beyond South Texas, livestock owners need to stay vigilant to ensure nothing gets past them.

There was one big thing Copenhaver wanted “the consumer” to know: screwworm is a pest issue, not a food issue.

“It’s not a food-borne safety issue,” he said. “The beef from a cow infested with screwworm is still good. There was some concern that speculation (on screwworm) was going to hurt the market, but they’re dealing with it, and I think we’re good.”

The confirmation of the screwworm immediately led to concern that beef prices could increase. Even if screwworm spreads much further and faster than anticipated, Copenhaver said that shouldn’t be a concern for beef buyers.

“It's a pest issue for the producer, not a food safety issue for the consumer,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Help On Wheels"}]

New World screwworm is the larva of the New World screwworm fly. The flies lay their eggs in living tissue, usually in open wounds or body openings like the eyes, nose, and mouth.

When the eggs hatch, the maggots feed and burrow into the surrounding tissue, which can quickly kill the afflicted animal.

“They can burrow into that wound and kill the animal within seven to 10 days,” Hasel said.

A female screwworm can fly more than 120 miles and lay more than 3,000 eggs in its short 20-day lifecycle.

The fly itself can’t move very far or very fast, so the flying range of female flies is not the primary concern in the spread of screwworm. The biggest concern is what Hasel called “help on wheels.”

“The fly doesn't move long distances, except when it has help on wheels,” she said. “The primary concern is that larvae go unnoticed on an animal that moves from an area where they’re supposed to move, or from where we aren’t aware that screwworm is present.”

Cattle are constantly moving throughout the United States in tractor-trailers. If one individual has an open wound with screwworm larvae inside, it could quickly become a widespread issue.

 between 1966 and 2025, but many ranchers 

 about its impact on their cattle. Its reappearance has many agricultural producers spooked, and Hasel thinks they’re right to be concerned.

“We need everyone to maintain their vigilance, just in case it does move on a trailer somewhere else,” she said. “That it doesn't mean that you need to put every animal in the chute every day. It just means you need to be aware, look at any wound that you see on an animal, and make sure there isn't something in that wound that looks unusual.”

The discussion around screwworm has focused primarily on its potential impacts on cattle ranchers, as the first case was detected in a calf.

While the impacts of screwworm on livestock is a potent concern, Hasel believes that’s narrowing the scope. The threat of screwworm is much broader.

“What we're really concerned about is not just livestock, but all species,” she said. “It’s not just cows and horses. It’s cats, dogs, and other companion animals.”

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s where Wyomingites need to be concerned now and in the future."}]

Hasel mentioned that animal shelters nationwide take in rescued cats and dogs from southern states like Texas and Florida. That’s where they’re more likely to be infested with screwworm and, potentially, spread it very far in a very short amount of time.

“We get a lot of pets into Wyoming rescues that go up for adoption from states like Texas,” she said. “Should any of those animals have a wound and the larvae aren't noticed, we're concerned that that could also spread screwworm into Wyoming.”

Fortunately, there are several approved treatments and preventative products that protect pets from screwworm. If people don’t already have this protection for their pets, Hasel highly encourages them to obtain it now.

“Having them on a preventative is just a great all-around measure,” she said.

[{"type":"text","text":"It’s also worth noting that humans can be afflicted by screwworm, too."}]

In August 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that someone in Maryland had screwworm after returning from a trip to El Salvador.

It was the first human case of travel-associated New World screwworm myiasis from an outbreak-affected country identified in the U.S.

“It could get into a slight wound or scratch on any warm-blooded animal,” Copenhaver said. “It can affect wildlife too, and we can’t doctor to wildlife like we can our own cattle. That’s the fear.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What To Do (When You Need To)"}]

Hasel doesn’t believe the single confirmed screwworm case in Texas this week poses an imminent threat to Wyoming. However, the risk of screwworm needs to be taken seriously.

If anyone confirms or suspects a cow, horse, or companion animal has an open wound infested with screwworm, they need to take immediate steps to save the animals and notify the proper authorities.

“If it's a livestock-sized animal, do not move that animal,” Hasel said. “Lock it up in a small pen, right where it's at. If you see any larvae in an open wound, do not throw them on the ground. Collect them into a container, take pictures of the wound and the larvae, and examine the rest of your herd.”

For potentially afflicted cats and dogs, Hasel said pet owners should take them to a veterinarian immediately. Any larvae should be collected and placed into a sealable container.

Regardless of the animal, Hasel said Wyomingites need to report any confirmed or potential screwworm infestation to her and the Wyoming Livestock Board immediately.

“We all work together,” she said. “If you can’t reach us, your veterinarian will know how. People just need to remember that even if you find it in cattle, and if it spreads to more cattle, we have appropriate treatments in place.”

[{"type":"text","text":"300 Million Solutions A Week"}]

Since the return of screwworm to the U.S. has been anticipated for years, preventive measures have been in place for some time.

The primary way screwworm was eradicated in the 1960s was by breeding and releasing sterile male screwworm flies. That’s the same strategy being developed to stop screwworm in the 2020s.

“The flies only breed once,” Copenhaver said. “If the females breed with sterile males, they can’t put out their larvae.”

Copenhaver mentioned that a facility in Panama is already releasing 100 million sterile screwworm flies a week to reduce, and hopefully eradicate, the parasitic fly in Central America. A new facility being built in Mexico, with financial support from the U.S., will release over 300 million sterile flies a week.

“That will be on board by midsummer 2027,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll have screwworm on the run by this time next year.”

In the meantime, Copenhaver believes the USDA and the Texas Animal Health Commission are “doing a great job” handling the single confirmed case of screwworm and reducing the potential spread by every means necessary.

“Screwworm needs to be taken seriously, but I think this case is very much under control,” he said. “We want people to know that this is a pest issue, not a food issue, and this is a single confirmed case that we’ve anticipated for a while.”

And, if all else fails, Wyoming livestock and companion animals have an additional layer of protection. Screwworms don’t like the cold.

“They won’t come where it gets very cold,” Copenhaver said. “When it's wintertime, they’ll go away because of the cold weather.”

Screwworm and cattle

<title>Wyoming State Vet Says Wyoming Ranchers Need To Be Worried About Screwworm | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming State Veterinarian Hallie Hasel said Wyoming ranchers and pet owners should treat the detection of the New World screwworm in Texas as "an immediate threat." She said Texas officials are doing a good job stopping the spread but it should be taken seriously.

Wyoming State Vet Says Wyoming Ranchers Need To Be Worried About Screwworm

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Laramie couple accused of keeping drugs in the same room as an infant — including a meth-loaded syringe investigators say was found inside the baby's crib — face felony charges after a probation officer inspected their home.

Alyisha Edwards and Edward Miller are each charged with one count of a child being present where meth or fentanyl is possessed, a felony that could put them in prison for up to 10 years each. 

They are also being charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance.

Both waived their preliminary hearings Tuesday, and a judge set their bonds at $30,000 cash-only, according to court records made available Thursday. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Syringe In The Bassinet"}]

The allegations stem from a probation compliance check at a residence in Laramie last week.

Wyoming Probation and Parole agents requested assistance from deputies while checking on Edwards, who was under supervision, wrote Albany County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Fourman in an affidavit supporting the charges.

When authorities arrived at the home shortly before 11 a.m. May 27, they were told by a roommate that Edwards wasn't home. 

Eventually, authorities found Edwards with Miller hiding in a shed behind the home, court documents say.

Investigators also found drug paraphernalia during the search of the shed, including glass and metal pipes with suspected meth and marijuana residue. 

[{"type":"text","text":"What deputies say they found inside a bedroom elevated the case."}]

Inside the couple's bedroom, they found a loaded hypodermic syringe containing suspected liquid meth at the bottom of an infant bassinet belonging to their son. 

Deputies wrote that Edwards told investigators the child regularly slept there.

A subsequent TruNarc test of the liquid inside the syringe produced a presumptive positive result for meth, the affidavit states.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Pointing Fingers"}]

After their arrests, both adults reportedly told investigators the syringe belonged to the other.

According to the affidavit, Edwards admitted using meth days earlier, but denied ownership of the syringe, telling investigators it belonged to Miller.

During an interview with investigators, “Edwards admitted her infant son … regularly sleeps in the bedroom inside the infant bassinet, and admitted to using methamphetamine the previous Sunday,” the affidavit says.

“Further, Alyisha Edwards claimed the hypodermic needle found in the bassinet was not hers, but belonged to Edward Miller and stated her roommate does not use drugs,” the document continues.

Miller, meanwhile, allegedly told investigators the syringe belonged to Edwards, the affidavit says.

The competing explanations are among the issues likely to be addressed as the case moves through Albany County District Court.

Miller is represented by Albany County Public Defender David M. Korman. Edwards is represented by court-appointed attorney Jeremey William Meerkreebs.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Cases Headed To District Court"}]

Tuesday's hearing in Albany County Circuit Court lasted only minutes. Rather than requiring prosecutors to present evidence supporting the charges, both defendants waived their hearings.

Edwards and Miller will next appear in Albany County District Court for arraignment hearings that had not yet been scheduled.

Albany County Sheriff 9 11 25

<title>Laramie Couple Charged After Meth-Filled Syringe Found In Baby's Crib | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Laramie couple was bound over to felony-level court this week after a meth-filled syringe was found in their baby's crib. Both claimed the syringe belonged to the other, while the baby’s mother admitted using meth, according to court documents.

Laramie Couple Charged After Meth-Filled Syringe Found In Baby's Crib

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

Another aurora is heading for the skies over Wyoming, and it might be the last good 

natural light show for Cowboy State residents

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has issued 

Three coronal mass ejections (CMEs) surged out of the sun on Tuesday and are anticipated to reach Earth’s atmosphere sometime Thursday.

“The current forecast calls for combined CME arrival around mid-afternoon (Thursday), with up to G3 levels possible afterward,” according to the SWPC. “CME passage would likely continue into the evening and possibly overnight hours of (Friday).”

Wyoming aurora enthusiasts are already anticipating a good show, and they’ll be making the most of it. 

[{"type":"text","text":"There might not be another one this good for another 10 years or more."}]

“I wasn't expecting any more activity after last spring's activity,” said Jan Curtis, a retired meteorologist and former Wyoming state climatologist. “We're definitely at the edge of the envelope for seeing these big displays during this solar cycle.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Cannibalistic Event"}]

The intensity of CMEs ranges from G1 to G5. The incoming CME is now a G3, but the SWPC believes it could be G4 by the time it reaches Earth.

Curtis said the intensity of this CME is “a cannibal-type event.” The three CMEs ejected from the sun are intensifying each other as they hurtle through space.

“When one CME catches up to another, it intensifies it,” he said. “It adds a force multiplier to the intensity of the initial eruption.”

That said, there’s no way of knowing how intense the subsequent aurora will be until it gets here. Curtis said there’s “a 50/50 chance” that there will be a super-strong aurora visible in Wyoming, even though it’s almost guaranteed that the CMEs will reach Earth.

“When Earth’s atmosphere is positively charged, they repel other positively charged particles, like a magnet,” he said. “The last time this happened, we were expecting a pretty good display, but the magnetic declination was in the wrong direction.”

Even the SWPC acknowledges there is “a rather complex series of events and circumstances” that will impact the intensity of 

If the CMEs are even more Earth-directed than they already seem to be, they will continue to intensify each other before combining with each other in Earth’s atmosphere.

“The forecasts of aurora are always questionable,” Curtis said. “The SWPC gives you the best estimate they can, but if there are multiple solar wind bursts coming through, that’s usually a good indicator that we will get to see something.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"All-Nighter"}]

Aurora enthusiast and photographer Laura Redmond is already anticipating an “all-nighter” based on the developing forecast.

“They're comparing this storm possibly to the one in May 2024, and that was a very good one,” she said.

The May 2024 auroras were considered some of the best in living memory in Wyoming. They started with 

 between May 10 and 12 of that year, followed by 

Redmond isn’t getting her hopes too high, but said the current outlook is “pretty promising.”

“When a CME hits the Earth, it takes several hours for it to push this far south,” she said. “I'm hoping that it'll hit between noon and 3 p.m., because then it should be down by dark down here in Wyoming. From the numbers yesterday, it looks pretty promising.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mooning Us"}]

When it comes to CMEs, timing can be tricky. There’s no definite time someone can expect to step outside and see the aurora at its peak.

Redmond had a few suggestions based on her personal experience that have proven results.

“For the people in Wyoming, you just need to be away from city lights,” she said. “You don't have to drive out that far, and you probably will be able to see them with your naked eye.”

Redmond said people need to look for a “white, wispy, moving cloud” between the constellations Ursa Major, the Big Dipper, and Cassiopeia. That’ll be in the northeastern sky.

“The May 2024 was an all-nighter on the first night, and it lasted about an hour and a half after dark the next night,” she said. “We got two nights out of that one, so it’s possible we could get two nights out of this one, too.”

As for timing, Curtis has a good suggestion of when to step out and look up.

“They're most active around midnight, plus or minus an hour,” he said. “It will probably start off very faint, then burst into a lot of activity. But once it gets dark, certainly start looking.”

There will be a potential problem to contend with. The moon is scheduled to rise around 11 p.m., and it’s an 84% illuminated waning gibbous.

“It’s still a pretty big moon, but if the aurora’s bright enough, there should be no problems seeing it,” Curtis said. “Also, the moon’s going over the southern horizon, and we’ll be looking north, so it won’t interfere as much as it could.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Last Hurrah"}]

The sun reached the climax of its solar maximum in October 2024. It’s the point of the 11-year solar cycle when there are more sunspots on the surface of the sun, which means there’s a higher probability of CMEs being generated.

At this point, the sun has nearly cycled out of its solar maximum. It won’t reach its next maximum for another decade, and possibly longer.

As its sunspots decrease, the likelihood of any CME, let alone three colliding CMEs, decreases “exponentially,” according to Curtis.

He added that summer “is not really notorious” for auroras, specifically the northern lights that will potentially reach Wyoming over the next two days. For Wyomingites, this is a “make the most of it” moment for anyone who wants to see an aurora in all its (potential) splendor.

“If we see anything in the next day or so, we should count ourselves lucky,” he said. “We are coming at the end of the two-year buffer after solar maximum, and the frequency of aurora storms diminishes pretty fast at this point. 

"This will probably be the last aurora of this particular solar cycle that we’ll see in Wyoming.”

Auroras 9adf49dd df79 4f73 b03b 6344cd7e4837 6 4 26

<title>Powerful Geomagnetic Storm Could Bring Aurora Shows To Wyoming Thursday And Friday | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Scientists are excited about the possibility of colorful aurora shows on Thursday and Friday nights and Wyoming is in the target zone. Conditions for this event are being compared to May, 2024, which provided some of the most colorful shows in decades.

Powerful Geomagnetic Storm Could Bring Aurora Shows To Wyoming Thursday And Friday

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.

Humans living in these various regions incorporate the stable isotope signal from their drinking water and food that correlate to particular regions.

When forensic scientists analyze human remains, they examine the various stable isotopes — carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen — that act as chemical signatures reflecting what a person consumed and where they lived during their lifetime, both recent and past.

Every geographical location has a unique chemical composition evident in its local water and food sources, soil composition and climate, Mancuso explained.

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.

One More For The Road: Tuesday, August 22, 2023

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