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

<title>Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, October 25, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

Crime & Courts

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.

Researchers can then track these predictable geographical patterns using isotope maps called “isoscapes” to identify likely regions where that person lived or traveled.

Hair in particular, which was used to trace Alexander to the Afton area, serves as an excellent linear time recorder of isotope information because it grows at a predictable rate of about one centimeter per month and provides a chronological record in its keratin protein structure, Mancuso said.

In this case, isotopes in Alexander’s hair matched those in drinking water that suggested she’d lived in the that particular area of Wyoming for the past seven months.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Great Basin Murders"}]

Alexander is thought to be one of about nine victims killed between 1983 and 1997 across four states in the Great Basin geographical area that includes Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and Idaho, and dumped along interstates in the remote arid watershed.

Many had been sexually abused or assaulted and either strangled, shot or stabbed.

Some were posed like Alexander, including another Jane Doe found in rural Elko County in July 1972 who also had been shot twice with her body posed to resemble a cross.

Initially, it was thought that one serial killer might be responsible for all the deaths, but it was quickly determined that most the murders were committed by different people.

The first victim was thought to be 23-year-old Janelle Johnson, who was hitchhiking from Denver to Riverton in February 1983 and was last seen at a truck stop in Sinclair, Wyoming.

The aspiring model was found less than a month later in a shallow grave near Shoshoni, Wyoming, according to the national nonprofit Parents of Murdered Children.

 in March 1988, was also among the young women killed.

Her body was found floating in the North Platte River near Casper and it took until 2004 to bring her killer to justice.

Eaton had also been suspected in Alexander’s murder because he had reportedly lived in the Elko area at the time and had been arrested for domestic violence, according to a 2010 report by the Elko Daily Free Press.

One of the other Wyoming victims, who remained unidentified for years and was known as “Bitter Creek Betty,” was identified in 2025 as Irene Vasquez.

Both Vasquez, and Cindi Arleen Estrada, who had formerly been known as “I-90 Jane Doe,” 

were determined to be victims of Clark Perry Baldwin

Baldwin, a long-haul truck driver who was convicted of murdering a woman in 1991 in Tennessee, was 

Other victims affiliated with this geographic region and time period are Vicky Lynn Perkins, 19, who vanished from Oregon and whose body was found two months later off 1-70 in Emery County, Utah, in May 1989.

Two more victims were found within one month of each other in 1991.

The badly beaten deceased body of Ermalinda Garza Sherman was found in St. George, Utah, in April while a Jane Doe, later identified as Barbara Kaye Williams, was found in Salt Lake City in March.

Shafter Jane Doe inset 6 3 26

<title>32 Years After Her Posed Body Was Found Along I-80, ‘Shafter Jane Doe’ Identified | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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.

32 Years After Her Posed Body Was Found Along I-80, ‘Shafter Jane Doe’ Identified

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

With summer tourist activity hitting full pitch in Yellowstone National Park, and other black bears engaged in mating-season courtship, one bear apparently decided he’d just had enough and passed out for hours by the roadside near Tower Junction.

The bear sprawled on his back with his tongue hanging out and snoozed away the hot afternoon seemingly without a care in the world, blissfully ignoring traffic roaring by barely 30 yards away.

The bear zonked out so hard, some people worried that it was dead, park visitor and wildlife photographer Corey Pettis told Cowboy State Daily.

But the bear would occasionally stir, raise his head to look drowsily around before going back to sleep, said Pettis, who spent a couple of hours watching that bear and several others on May 28.

“It was a hot day. I think the temperature was up in the 80s,” which might explain why the bear was wise to find a shady spot and get some rest, even as other bears amorously chased each other around, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Black Bear Hangout"}]

 has been getting plenty of attention in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks this spring.

Around Tower Junction, it’s all about black bears, said Pettis, who lives in Wisconsin and has been visiting Yellowstone and Grand Teton every spring and fall for years.

“Over by Tower Falls is where the black bears all hang out. I’ve hardly ever seen a grizzly go through there,” he said.

Pettis said he saw nine black bears in the general area on May 28, including three others in the vicinity of the sleepy bear.

Those bears included at least one female that was being actively pursued by males trying to mate with her.

“Maybe he (the sleeping bear) had been out chasing that female earlier and was just tired,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Going Unnoticed"}]

Pettis said that the snoozing bear was one of the most amusing things he’s ever seen in the national parks.

Equally amusing is how unnoticed the bear was by many tourists.

“There were hundreds of people stopping and looking around,” attracted by the sight of the black bears that were up and moving, he said.

“But that sleeping bear was down so flat on the ground, many people didn’t even notice he was there,” he added.

That’s just as well, because nobody tried to push in too close and disrupt the bear’s slumber, he said.

“He was sleeping hard. I could just about picture the drool coming out of his mouth,” Pettis said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Tolerant Of People"}]

Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of the Grizzly Bear Foundation in British Columbia, Canada, told Cowboy State Daily that he wasn’t particularly surprised to hear about a black bear sleeping soundly near so many people.

Generally speaking, black bears are “much more comfortable being closer to human settlements than grizzlies are,” he said.

Black bears evolved in heavily forested habitats and usually don’t need as much vast, undisturbed territory as grizzlies do, he said.

“Grizzlies need bigger habitats,” he said. "They need isolated alpine areas to den in."

So-called “roadside” grizzlies in Yellowstone and Grand Teton are mostly females with cubs, Scapillati said.

That’s because male grizzlies will sometimes kill a female’s cubs in hopes that the female will go back into heat so the male can mate with her.

Large male grizzlies tend to be less tolerant of crowds, and so the roadside grizzly mammas have learned to take their cubs near roadsides to lower risks, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bear Personalities"}]

While black bears might be more apt to get comfortable around crowds, grizzlies can get used to specific humans in the backcountry, Scapillati said.

He’s watched female grizzlies nursing their cubs in the wild, something those bears might not have been comfortable doing near crowds.

People also frequently underestimate how intelligent black bears and grizzlies are, Scapillati said.

They’re smart and complex enough to develop a wide range of personalities, he said.

It makes sense that the black bear Pettis watched snoozing near Tower Junction may have an unusually mellow personality, Scapillati said.

And in the parks, it might be possible for grizzlies to develop that level of comfort with crowds of tourists, he added.

“It’s probably a matter of time before somebody films a grizzly bear doing that (zonking out by the roadside),” he said.

Sleepy bear 6 3 26

<title>Tired Of Mobs And Mating Season, Yellowstone Black Bear Zonks Out By Roadside | Cowboy State Daily</title>

As Yellowstone buzzed with tourists and other bears were caught up in courtship, a black bear apparently decided he’d had enough and zonked out by the roadside near Tower Junction. The bear was out so hard, some people worried that it was dead.

Tired Of Mobs And Mating Season, Yellowstone Black Bear Zonks Out By Roadside

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Courts

CASPER — A 35-year-old Evansville man is accused of camping out in a trailer on someone’s property, then walking into their house uninvited to get orange juice from the refrigerator.

Police say those actions happened after Garrett Maheu failed to return as required to the Casper Re-entry Center, the community corrections facility in town.

Maheu waived a preliminary hearing Tuesday in Casper Circuit Court on charges of burglary, criminal entry, theft, interference with a police officer, and use of controlled substance in one case and an escape charge in another case.

Court documents show Maheu’s renewed encounter with the court system began with his failing to return to the halfway house facility by midnight May 25 following a shift at the Outback Steakhouse in Casper.

He was declared an escapee by the facility at 2 a.m., and law enforcement efforts to locate Maheu were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, at about 8 p.m. the next day, Casper police were dispatched to a home on a report of a burglary. 

Officers were told by the husband of a woman at the residence that a man in a blue beanie, black shirt, and blue jeans was trying to open the doors of their house. 

His wife was inside and “freaking out,” according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case.

After police and the husband arrived at the home, the couple provided police with video of a man acting erratic, speaking to himself and apparently experiencing a “manic episode,” the affidavit states.

At 8:55, 911 got another call from a woman in the 2000 block of South Coffman Avenue that an unknown man just walked into her house, and she had no idea where he went.

Police responded to that home, and the woman told police he left out her back door and that she had never seen the man before.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"She Was ‘Shaking’ "}]

“(The woman) was visibly shaking from the incident and advised she was shocked by the event,” the affidavit states. She "advised she was the only adult home and had two children who were asleep.”

The woman told police that a man in a black shirt suddenly walked into her house and opened her refrigerator. 

She said she confronted the man, then he “grabbed a container of orange juice from the fridge and stated to (the woman) that he had been living in a camper parked out back.”

The woman told police he than ran out the back door with the orange juice and she then called 911.

Officers went to the back yard and found nobody in the trailer. 

They had the woman examine the trailer and she told them it “was a mess and not in that state before being stored for the winter,” the affidavit states. 

She told police the trailer was typically left unlocked.

She also pointed out a blue beanie in the bathroom of the camper that did not belong to her family. The beanie was similar to the one worn by the man on the video at the previous residence, the affidavit states.

Police searched the area, but could not locate the suspect.

At 10:12 p.m., another Casper resident called 911 about a man walking westbound in an alley who appeared to be under the influence. 

Officers responded to the area and found Maheu in the vicinity of Dover Avenue and Essex Avenue, noting he matched the description of the man at the other locations.

Maheu told officers that he had been inside the camper on South Coffman Avenue and that the woman inside the home had given permission for him to take the orange juice. 

He initially refused to give police his name, denying he was Garrett Wayne Maheu. But after being confronted with the description about the Casper Re-Entry Program escapee with the skull tattoo on his chest, which he had, he admitted his identify, the affidavit states.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Meth And Drinks"}]

At the time of his arrest, Maheu was “profusely sweating” and had “pinpoint pupils” and was acting erratically, the affidavit states.

Under questioning, Maheu admitted he had used an “eight ball” of meth a few hours earlier, the term used to describe an eighth of an ounce of the drug. 

He also had two drinks that were cold in his possession that included a Fever-Tree Ginger Beer and a Truly strawberry lemonade hard seltzer that he said he got from the cooler of a guy known as “Evil.”

When shown the beanie found in the camper, he told the officer that it “absolutely” belonged to him and that he obtained it at a truck stop.

Both the burglary and escape charges carry a potential penalty of 10 years in prison as well as an up to $10,000 fine for the burglary charge. 

The criminal entry, theft, and use of a controlled substance charges are punishable by up to six months in prison and a $750 fine.

The interference with a police officer charge is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Bond was set at $10,000 cash or surety in the burglary case and $5,000 in the escape case.

Maheu had been serving time at the Casper Re-Entry Center after being sentenced for a larceny in Sweetwater County.

Maheu Casper Cop Car 6 3 26

<title>Fugitive Accused Of Breaking Into Casper-Area Homes, Taking Orange Juice | Cowboy State Daily</title>

An Evansville man accused of not returning to a Casper halfway house after work faces more charges for allegedly breaking into people’s homes. He "grabbed a container of orange juice from the fridge” when confronted by a frightened woman at one house.

Fugitive Accused Of Breaking Into Casper-Area Homes, Taking Orange Juice

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

UPDATE 2:50 p.m.: This story has been updated to reflect the Goshen County Sheriff's Office confirms a suspect has been identified, and that if criminal charges are filed that will be up to the Goshen County Attorney's Office.

The family of two Rottweilers found dead and mutilated in the North Platte River near Torrington says Goshen County Sheriff

s Office representatives have told them someone has turned himself in and admitted to shooting the dogs.

Angelica Garcia, whose parents owned the dogs named Django and Hildy, said that members of the sheriff’s office informed the family on Wednesday that a person had come forward and admitted to shooting the animals.

According to Garcia, investigators declined to identify the suspect, citing concerns for that person's safety.

The case has drawn statewide attention since Friday, when the dogs disappeared after getting loose from their family's property and were later found dead by a mother and her son near a popular fishing area along the North Platte River.

Garcia told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that she believes the dogs 

The family has previously claimed the dogs were shot, their collars removed, and their bodies left in the river. Authorities have not publicly confirmed those allegations.

Goshen County Sheriff Kory Fleenor confirmed Wednesday his office does have a suspect, who is not in custody. His identity isn't being released at this time, and it will be up to the Goshen County attorney to decide if criminal charges are appropriate.

"This was an unfortunate situation for everyone involved," Fleenor said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Family Says Objection To Online Posts"}]

Garcia said the revelation about the alleged suspect came during a tense conversation with investigators.

According to Garcia, members of the sheriff's office expressed frustration with videos and information the family has shared online about the case and took issue with some of the media coverage surrounding the deaths of Django and Hildy.

She said the sheriff's office expressed frustration with Pamela Garcia for videos and information the family shared online.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We're not taking anything down,\" Garcia said."}]

The deaths of the dogs sparked a wave of public reaction after the family posted photographs and videos online and launched a petition demanding answers about what happened.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"$2,500 Reward Offered"}]

As questions continue to surround the case, Animal Wellness Action announced it is offering up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for what the organization describes as the unlawful killing of the dogs.

The reward was announced before Garcia said the family learned that someone had allegedly admitted to shooting the animals.

Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action, said he was not aware of any tips submitted to the organization as of this week, but that rewards often motivate witnesses and others with information to come forward.

"The reward really is the driver of that information," Pacelle said. "Once people understand that there's a reward, that is a very important incentive for people to participate in the process of helping law enforcement."

Pacelle said his organization became involved because of what he views as a well-established connection between animal cruelty and broader patterns of violence.

"There's a tremendous link between malicious acts of cruelty and other crimes and other social violence," he said.

Pacelle pointed to research linking animal cruelty to domestic violence and other criminal behavior.

"It's often a precursor or a red flag of someone who is going to commit other acts of violence," he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Echoes Of The Cody Roberts Case"}]

Animal Wellness Action and its sister organization, the Center for a Humane Economy, were also involved in the high-profile case of Cody Roberts, the Daniel man who pleaded guilty to felony animal cruelty after chasing down a wolf with a snowmobile and later displaying the severely injured animal in a bar.

Pacelle said the facts in the Torrington case remain unclear and stopped short of directly comparing the two incidents.

[{"type":"text","text":"Still, he said both cases raise concerns about how animals are treated."}]

"The common theme is just a contempt for the life of an innocent animal," he said.

Pacelle said the organization hopes the reward and public attention surrounding the case will encourage anyone with information to come forward.

"It does matter a great deal," he said. "People may not be aware of the correlation between animal cruelty and human criminality and violence, and we really want to underscore that."

Rottweilers and torrington 6 3 26

<title>Torrington Family Says Suspect Turns Self In For Shooting Mutilated Rottweilers | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Torrington family says the Goshen County Sheriff’s Office told them a suspect turned himself in for shooting their Rottweilers, whose mutilated bodies were found in the North Platte River. The sheriff’s office confirms there is a suspect in the case.

Torrington Family Says Suspect Turns Self In For Shooting Mutilated Rottweilers

A Lincoln County contractor could be facing serious criminal charges after allegedly beating a man, threatening him with a shovel, taking his phone and coercing him into signing over a truck and equipment during a daylong 

Lincoln County Sheriff's Deputy Kale McGee outline the allegations in a 12-page affidavit filed Friday and made available Tuesday, seeking charges of aggravated blackmail and battery against Thomas John Robinson.

mother called 911 from Afton, reporting her son had been held against his will and was covered in blood, wrote McGee. 

The sheriff's deputy arrived to find the man wearing a white shirt stained with dried blood. McGee wrote that he also had dried blood near his nose and fresh bruising on his face.

The man claims Robinson arrived at his Thayne-area home around 10 a.m. demanding repayment from a failed equipment deal.

A Lincoln County man is accused of beating a man to coerce him to sign over a truck and equipment during a daylong shakedown over a debt. “Catch people like you and string you up and flog you daily,” police say the contractor threatens on video.

Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, October 25, 2023

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