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You still here 9 26 23

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

<title>You Still Here? Tuesday, September 26, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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You Still Here? Tuesday, September 26, 2023

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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

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Energy

Coal

As Peabody Energy has again slashed the health benefits for retired Wyoming coal mine workers, the state’s congressional delegation has so far been silent.

Multiple requests Wednesday for reaction from the offices of U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman and U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis to Peabody’s decision to terminate its Retiree Medical Allowance program weren’t answered by publication.

 that cutting the program has left them, in some cases, without hundreds of thousands of dollars they had counted on.

In the meantime, Peabody reported Wednesday that its second-quarter earnings fell short of expectations while projecting stronger cash generation later this year.

For retirees who say Wyoming’s largest coal-mining company broke promises of lifetime medical benefits, the report only deepened their questions about why it can afford to pay its CEO more than $9 million a year but not the benefits they spent decades earning.

Travis Deti, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, said things like the retirement benefits “are company decisions” that fall “outside of my wheelhouse” to comment on.

He also said Peabody’s production was a little lower than the mining association had hoped for in the second quarter, but that Mother Nature was largely to blame for that.

“We came out of a really mild winter,” he said, which means less power used to heat homes. “We certainly expect with a nice, hot summer that those numbers will pick up in the third and fourth quarters.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Second Quarter Earnings Report"}]

Peabody Chief Executive Officer Jim Grech said in a statement that the second-quarter report “reflected temporarily lower volumes and higher costs.”

Grech added he expects results to improve in the second half of the year, spurred by performance at the company’s flagship Centurion Mine in Australia.

"We're targeting strong cash generation for the second half of 2026, fueled by our seaborne metallurgical and thermal segments," Grech said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Those segments are in Australia."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Wyoming Retirees Scrambling"}]

Keith Schaeffer, formerly of Casper and Douglas, spent 17 years working for Peabody Energy’s North Antelope Rochelle Mine in Campbell County. 

When he retired from the company in 2016, he said he had $190,000 to use for medical expenses under the RMA program.

In 2020, Peabody announced it was it was discontinuing the program for retirees older than  65. 

That meant that Schaeffer would no longer have access to money he said he was promised. His wife, Lisa, still qualified because she was younger than 65.

Now, Schaeffer said he is preparing to look for new health insurance for his wife next year once the RMA is completely terminated.

As an employee, Schaeffer said he remembers his medical expenses being 100% covered by the company.

[{"type":"text","text":"“They treated us well. They cared about us,” he said."}]

Schaeffer said he was aware of the fine print, in which the company reserved the right to take the RMA away at any time.

“They had to keep up with times,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I guess it’s like any other big corporate business nowadays. Everybody’s a number.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Jim Allington of Douglas and Gloria Buell of Gillette, who also worked at the North Antelope Rochelle Mine.

Allington, who put in more than 30 years with Peabody and worked many 16-hour days, recently learned that the $260,000 he was promised for medical expenses will disappear at the end of the year.

“They took away my benefits that they promised,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

Buell recalled a meeting for employees where Peabody representatives talked about a big pot of money meant to cover health costs for company retirees.

“It would last you the rest of your life,” Gloria said she remembers hearing. “It was promised as part of your retirement.”

“They promised us everything,” Shafer said. “They took it away.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"RMA Support Group"}]

In Indiana, Peabody Energy retiree Don Wright last week launched the "Peabody Retirees RMA support group" on Facebook, hoping to publicize the RMA cuts and encourage Peabody retirees to share their experiences.

Wright worked at five mines in Indiana over his 25-year career with Peabody Energy.

Wright also launched a letter-writing campaign, urging lawmakers to get involved in Peabody Energy’s decision to cut retiree medical benefits.

In the letter, addressed to President Donald Trump, Wright wrote, “The reason you have a well lit up White House is directly related to our work. The reason the reflecting pool and the Washington monument are so visible at night is the coal that we have carved out of the earth.”

Wright said he hopes the letter will motivate elected officials to pressure Peabody to reverse course on its decision to terminate the RMA.

“You see at the same time that Peabody is cutting our benefits they are receiving vast sums of public money,” Wright said in an email to Cowboy State Daily. “We would like to have some answers.

“It seems to me that Peabody has a problem with keeping their word. If so, do they deserve any of this public money?”

[{"type":"text","text":"Wright said he has not received a response to his letter."}]

Peabody coal haul truck Peabody Energy Public Domain 7 29 26

<title>Wyoming Congressional Delegation Silent On Peabody's Move To Cut Retirement Benefit | Cowboy State Daily</title>

As Peabody Energy has slashed the health benefits for retired Wyoming coal mine workers, the state’s congressional delegation has so far been silent. Retirees wonder why it can afford to pay its CEO $9 million last year but not their promised benefits.

Wyoming Congressional Delegation Silent On Peabody's Move To Cut Retirement Benefit

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.

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.

You Still Here? Tuesday, September 26, 2023

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