Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"It's always a good idea to sneak up on someone while wearing a mask...."}]

Darwin 12 8 23

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Friday, December 8, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

It's always a good idea to sneak up on someone while wearing a mask....

Daily Darwin: Friday, December 8, 2023

 It's always a good idea to sneak up on someone while wearing a mask....

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

Nearly two years after the decomposing body of a Cody man was found in a house after a weekend drug bender with a female friend, the woman has turned herself in to authorities.

Brooke Messick said she wanted to “take accountability for my actions” and admitted she had not “felt like a good person” since the man’s death, according to an affidavit of probable cause made available Wednesday in Park County Circuit Court.

The last thing Messick says she remembers hearing before leaving a house after a prolonged drug binge was a guy "snoring loudly," something law enforcement says is a telltale sign of an opiate overdose. 

Now the Cody woman is sitting in the Park County Detention Center charged with involuntary manslaughter and delivery of a controlled substance after investigators say she admitted giving methadone to a man who was later found dead and decomposing in his bed.

Messick, who was charged Wednesday, is being held on a $50,000 cash-only bond. Conditions of her release prohibit her from leaving Park County or using illegal substances.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'The Deceased Had Begun To Decompose' "}]

By the time investigators were called to the home on 20

 Street in Cody after a resident reported finding a dead man, his corpse had already begun to decompose, says the affidavit, written by Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent J.W. Mcloud.

They believe the man may have been dead for about three days before his body was discovered on Aug. 17, 2024, according to the affidavit.

Detectives found meth and drug paraphernalia scattered through the residence and a small amount of meth in the bed next to the body.

Toxicology later delivered the hard answer: The man died from what the death certificate called “mixed illicit drug toxicity” involving methadone and meth.

Investigators say multiple confidential sources identified Messick as one of the last people to see the man alive.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'lmaaoooo'"}]

One source told investigators Messick had talked about the man “snoring” and worrying he may have overdosed before his body was discovered, the affidavit says.

Another source claimed Messick admitted she had provided methadone around the time of his death and “snuck out” of the residence afterward.

During an October 2024 interview with investigators, Messick allegedly denied giving the man methadone, though she acknowledged spending most of the weekend with him while they used fentanyl and meth together, according to court documents.

Investigators later searched Messick’s phone and reported finding messages they believed showed attempts to sell or distribute controlled substances in Park County, including methadone. 

The affidavit also says investigators found internet searches related to injecting methadone and methadone tablets.

A Snapchat message recovered during the investigation showed a message allegedly sent by Messick to the man at 12:19 p.m. Aug. 14, 2024, after she had left the residence.

“I tried to wake you up and let you know that I had to head out but you wouldn’t wake up lmaaoooo but don’t worry you were snoring and breathing so I didn’t narcan you :)” the message stated, as recorded in the affidavit.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Alarm Bells Went Off"}]

Investigators also reviewed activity from the dead man's cellphone, including alarm logs that showed an 8 a.m. alarm sounding for roughly 15 minutes the morning of Aug. 14  without being shut off. 

Investigators believed he was already incapacitated or dead by that point, wrote Mcloud.

The case took another turn Monday, nearly two years after the man's death, when investigators say Messick voluntarily appeared at the Cody Law Enforcement Center wanting to “turn herself in” regarding the DCI investigation.

She reportedly told investigators she and the man had spent the weekend “off and on getting high together” and that she gave him what she described as a “small dose” of methadone sometime around 10 or 11 p.m. the night before she left.

Messick reportedly said she woke up the next morning around 11 a.m. and found him still snoring heavily.

She told police that before she left the property, she went back in the house in a final attempt to wake the man, but he didn't wake up. 

“I was distraught. I did not know what to do," she told police, according to the affidavit. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'I Did Not Do What Was Right' "}]

Investigators say Messick also admitted cleaning up drug paraphernalia linked to fentanyl and other opiates before leaving the house.

At various points during the interview, Messick said she believed she had “neglected someone” and that "I did not do what was right.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The interview ended after Messick requested an attorney."}]

If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Messick could face up to 20 years in prison under Wyoming law. She also faces a felony delivery of a controlled substance charge connected to methadone distribution allegations.

[{"type":"text","text":"Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 4 at 10 a.m."}]

Brooke Messick 5 28 26

<title>Cody Woman Turns Self In Nearly 2 Years After Decomposing Man Found In Bed | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Nearly two years after the decomposing body of a Cody man was found in a house after a weekend drug bender with a female friend, the woman turned herself in to authorities this week. She said she wants to “take accountability for my actions."

Cody Woman Turns Self In Nearly 2 Years After Decomposing Man Found In Bed

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

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

Wildlife

Idaho Falls resident Don Johnson captured a serious violation of Yellowstone National Park rules when he unintentionally got video of 

, and her two cubs around 6:34 p.m. on May 14. The trio was wandering around Grizzly Lake in the northwest corner of Yellowstone between Mammoth Hot Springs and Roaring Mountain.

As he filmed their interactions with his iPhone, he captured something else: a white quadcopter drone 

, flying so close to the grizzlies that they could have reared up and swatted it out of the air.

“I didn’t even notice the drone at the time,” Johnson told Cowboy State Daily. “I didn't pay any attention to it until I heard a ranger yell out something about a drone, and by then I was done filming."

By the time Johnson was aware of the drone, dozens of people who had also stopped to watch the grizzlies had noticed it. 

[{"type":"text","text":"And they weren’t happy."}]

“Everybody was madder than hell,” Johnson said. “If anybody caught them, they'd probably have strung them up.”

Johnson posted the video of the incident on Facebook, where it’s been viewed 

“It should be illegal, and there should be a huge fine for doing it,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Fly Zone"}]

Flying drones in Yellowstone National Park, or any national park, is illegal. 

The National Park Service (NPS) categorizes drones as “uncrewed aircraft,” and they are completely prohibited within the boundaries of every NPS site.

Piloting a private drone without authorization is a misdemeanor offense, carrying a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/or a $5,000 fine.

As soon as drones became commercially available, they became an immediate liability in Yellowstone.

On Aug. 2, 2014, Theodorus Van Vliet from the Netherlands was piloting a drone over Grand Prismatic Spring when it unexpectedly crashed into the pool itself. Rangers attempted to locate and remove the drone but were never able to find it.

[{"type":"text","text":"Van Vilet was cited and paid $1,000 in fines and $2,200 in restitution."}]

That incident happened two months after the NPS banned private drones in all national parks.

Twelve years later, one would think that drones being banned in Yellowstone was common knowledge. This incident proves otherwise.

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

On June 5, 2025, a tourist was cited for flying a drone 

 told Cowboy State Daily it was “the most flagrant violation I have ever seen.”

“They were tidying up their nest,” he said 

. “The next thing you know, you see both of the osprey look up and then take off in a panic.”

Botkin found and confronted the drone’s operator, taking several pictures of him and his vehicle to ensure he wouldn’t get away with it. The culprit told Botkin to “go mind my own business.”

“He hovered (the drone) right above my head, like he was trying to intimidate me,” Botkin said. “I launched my hat at the drone but missed.”

NPS spokesperson Linda Veress confirmed that the drone’s operator was found and cited. He was never publicly identified.

As for the osprey, Botkin confirmed that both ospreys had returned to their nest by the next day and didn’t seem majorly miffed by the incident.

Johnson said the grizzlies he was watching two weeks ago didn’t seem to take much notice of the drone hovering extremely close to them. They were preoccupied with another grizzly that was nearby.

“They were a little bit perturbed, but I think they were paying more attention to that other bear that was walking towards them,” he said.

Johnson didn’t see whoever was flying the drone, as they were “around the corner and behind the hill.” 

That, at least, is where he and everyone else saw the drone disappear when it, presumably, returned to whoever was piloting it.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I wish I’d caught them,” he said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Unidentified Foreign Object?"}]

Cowboy State Daily attempted to reach Yellowstone National Park to see if it was aware of the May 14 drone incident. Officials had not responded by the time of publication.

Veress sent an email to SFGate saying the park “does not have a report of this incident.”

Wildlife photographer Karin Occhialini said information on the drone appeared on RedNote, a Chinese social networking and e-commerce app.

“The drone video showed up on RedNote, a massive Chinese media platform,” she said in a comment on Johnson’s video. “There were a number of comments, and the post was removed, but not before being screenshotted. Hopefully, whoever has the screenshot will turn it in.”

Johnson hasn’t shared his video with the NPS, as all it would do is confirm there was an illegal drone harassing Beryl and her cubs. That wouldn’t confirm the operator’s identity.

Johnson said the response to his video has been universally angry. Nobody was happy to see a drone in Yellowstone, let alone one so close to a grizzly.

“You got some people wanting to ban the tourists, but most people didn't say much except that they hope they get caught,” he said.

Others were waiting for the culprits to expose themselves. They felt it was only a matter of time before the video showed up on social media, which could lead to identification and citation.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Good Luck For Bad Luck"}]

As of Thursday, Johnson’s video of the May 14 drone incident has been viewed over 34,000 times.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I don’t even know that many people,” he said."}]

But that’s not his most-viewed video. That was one he filmed later that week, when an NPS ranger hazed a grizzly away from a bear jam by firing a shotgun into the air.

Johnson and his wife, Cindy, try to get into Yellowstone as often as they can, usually on the weekends. He regularly shares everything interesting he sees, and mid-May was a good time and place to see some out-of-the-ordinary moments.

[{"type":"text","text":"“We always seem to get pretty lucky when we get in there,” he said."}]

Beryl and her cubs, meanwhile, have not been affected by their drone fly-by and are still highly visible to the tourists who respect Yellowstone’s rules on safe distancing and no drones.

Drone and grizzlies 5 28 26

<title>Man Shoots Video Of Illegal Drone Harassing Grizzly And Cubs In Yellowstone | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Yellowstone visitors were furious after seeing an illegal drone harassing a grizzly bear and her two cubs. “Everybody was madder than hell,” said the man who got video of the incident. “If anybody caught them, they'd probably have strung them up.”

Man Shoots Video Of Illegal Drone Harassing Grizzly And Cubs In Yellowstone

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Public Safety

 a four-story apartment building under construction and two nearby garages on Tuesday is being investigated by a 25-person fire team from the Denver office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Cheyenne Fire Rescue Chief Andrew Dykshorn told Cowboy State Daily that ATF investigators have been at the scene since Wednesday and “bring the federal assets” to handle a major event like the fire at the Ridge View Apartments and Townhomes at 2025 E. Carlson St. behind Sam’s Club in north Cheyenne.

“This is definitely something that’s normal on larger events,” Dykshorn said of the ATF team. “They have investigators, that’s all they do — investigate big fires. It’s like an incident management team for fire investigation.”

The Ridge View fire qualifies, he said, adding that the ATF also helped local officials after the 

The building was four stories tall and planned to include 68 to 72 apartments, and because it was under construction was basically “just a matchbox with open lumber, ready to go up at any time.”

Without having progressed to the point of having exterior or interior finishes applied, it wouldn’t have taken much to ignite the wood framing of the building, Dykshorn said. He added that it’s too early in the investigation to say how the fire started.

“Obviously with unfinished buildings, there are reasons we put finishes on the inside and outside of buildings,” he said. “The building is more vulnerable to fire.”

He said the construction was at the point that an indoor fire suppression system “was the very next step the plans” called for.

The chief also said that, contrary to online speculation about the blaze, there were plenty of working fire hydrants in the complex that crews could tap into.

“There’s quite a bit of planning and infrastructure in place, and there were plenty of hydrants around there, and we had plenty of water pressure,” Dykshorn said. “We didn’t have any water issues at all.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘So Much Heat’"}]

A lot of that water was poured down onto the burning building from ladder trucks because the fire was so intensely hot, Dykshorn said.

“We needed to reduce that heat. When we go to a defensive strategy like that, we look at what’s around it and the adjacent exposures,” he said. “We tried putting a lot of water on the main building to get the heat down.”

That helped to keep a nearby finished and occupied apartment building from being evacuated, the chief said. But it didn’t stop the fire from totaling two nearby garages that were nearly finished, but weren’t being used yet.

“With that much fuel, that’s very typical there would be that much radiant heat,” Dykshorn said. “Open-air lumber construction materials like that is just a lot of wood glued together, so those generate so much heat.”

The first 911 call to report the fire came into the dispatch center at 3:33 p.m. Tuesday, he said, and firefighters were dispatched at 3:35.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Our guys were there at 3:40 p.m.,” he added."}]

Had the response taken seven or 10 minutes instead of five, “I feel the structure to the south that was occupied, we would have had to evacuate that had we not got there when we did,” Dykshorn said.

Wyoming’s famous wind also, for once, cooperated with firefighting efforts, he said. It blew away from the other buildings instead of toward them.

“If the wind had been in a different direction, we would’ve had a whole different problem,” Dykshorn said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Tires Were Blowing Up"}]

Sitting in his vehicle across the road from the fire Tuesday afternoon, Paul Trujillo watched the building burn from before firefighters arrived until it caved in.

[{"type":"text","text":"That only took about 15-20 minutes, he told Cowboy State Daily that day."}]

“We literally watched it from the beginning,” Trujillo said. “It was 15-20 minutes from start to collapse. It spread to the garage in between the two buildings, and it also started a grass fire.

He said he also was amazed at how fast and hot the fire burned.

“Oh my gosh, we were back by Sam’s Club and you could feel the heat like you were standing in front of a campfire,” he said.

Trujillo said he was concerned about the other apartment buildings to the south, along with Sam’s Club and Frontier Mall, if the wind changed.

“I was worried, because there are two sets of apartments there that they’re building,” he said. “We did see a window open, and when you see a window opening and that fire’s going on, I was worried somebody might be in there.”

He didn’t see anyone come out, “But we did hear some explosions coming from the building,” Trujillo added. “And the first thing we saw was the (construction) crews running around with their yellow vests on.”

Those explosions were probably the tires on an industrial lift that was in the building and the vehicles of workers parked around it blowing up, Dykshorn said.

Now, the investigation is in the hands of the ATF team, he said.

Cheyenne apartment from PD 5 26 26

<title>‘A Matchbox’: 25-Person ATF Team Investigating Huge Cheyenne Apartment Fire | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A 25-person team from the ATF is in Cheyenne to investigate the huge fire that burned a four-story apartment building under construction in minutes Tuesday. It was “just a matchbox with open lumber, ready to go up at any time,” said the fire chief.

‘A Matchbox’: 25-Person ATF Team Investigating Huge Cheyenne Apartment Fire

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

Renée Jean

Government & Politics

Executive

EVANSTON — Uinta County’s Planning and Zoning Commission chamber was packed from wall to wall Wednesday night with residents spilling into the hallway as Prometheus Hyperscale’s massive data center on the Thornock family ranch came up for a key vote.

But when it was time for the public to step up to the microphone, only a handful of people did.

After weeks of questions and skepticism at public forums and on social media, most of the standing-room-only crowd listened quietly as commissioners voted unanimously to recommend zoning and conditional use permit approvals to Uinta County commissioners for the proposed 1.25 gigawatt, 500-acre, off-grid campus.

The quiet was a stark contrast to the tone of an earlier meeting the night before, where hundreds turned out to ask questions, and at times became emotional.

Uinta County resident Keaunna Archuleta, one of those who did step up to speak Wednesday, told Cowboy State Daily she’d filled “five notebooks” with questions about the project that wants to become Evanston’s neighbor.

“In regards to the coolant system, in the event of an emergency, like a leakage, what kind of response plan do we have for that?” she asked in the packed meeting room. 

“As far as what that could look like, you know, severe weather, fires, things like that. I think that’s an important thing to know about,” she said.

Archuleta also wanted to know how much water would be needed to charge the closed-loop cooling system Prometheus founder Trenton Thornock had mentioned during his presentation at the beginning of the meeting. 

“What happens to the coolant?” she asked. “Where does it go? How does that affect the environment?”

And what about the facility’s diesel generators, she wondered. 

“Those are generally the size of a rail-car,” she said. “How many of those are going to be used, and what type of emissions are going to be contaminating our air? I think these are things that affect everyone and need to be considered. Those are my questions, thank you.”

Roddy Martin, meanwhile, who lives in Lyman, wanted to know how much natural gas the turbines would use to produce 1.25 gigawatts of power and Barbara Lowe wanted to know just how many decibels and what frequencies the data center would cause. 

“You mentioned the decibels were low,” she said. “My question is about the frequencies and how it affects our animals and wildlife and people’s livestock.”

Thornock had earlier said the sound levels would be between 60 to 70 decibels at the fence line — about the same as a dishwasher running in the kitchen. 

Another 1,000 feet away, the decibels drop to between 45 and 55, which Thornock said is quieter than a normal conversation, and quieter than his current speaking tone.

Holly Pfeiffer, who lives up in Robertson, wanted to know what makes Prometheus Hyperscale different than all the other data centers being protested around the country. 

“People are having problems with contamination of their water, their soil, their air,” she said. “Others have no water, they ran out of water. 

"How is that any different from what they’re doing, what you guys are doing here? If I could get that answered, that would be fantastic.”

The questions came out rapid fire, in intermittent batches toward the end of each hearing. What stood out just as much was how many people never spoke at all. Most had come simply to listen.

Prometheus Will Be Cleaner, Quieter, Off-Grid

Thornock took notes on each question, and answered them in small batches.

“So regarding the frequencies, there have been a number of studies done,” he said. “Most low frequency comes from natural sources like thunder, waves, earthquakes, and some unnatural sources like concealed nuclear tests. We will study all of the frequencies that are available to us when we do our acoustic study.”

That study will include a baseline before the data center is built. 

“We’ll be happy to share ongoing measurements once we start the facility,” he said.

As far as the coolant response plan, the data center will have catchment basins that are part of its engineering plan from the get-go, he said.

“In the unlikely event there is a spill, it will go into a containment area,” Thornock said. “How much water does it initially use? Well, it’s 75% water and 25% propylene glycol. 

"It will take approximately three Olympic swimming pools worth of fluid to do the initial fill, which lasts six years for each building.”

Even though propylene glycol is nontoxic, coolant will not be discharged, Thornock added. 

“The same supplier who supplies the coolant will be responsible to remove the coolant and dispose of it properly under EPA rules,” he said. “Diesel backup generators are fully scrubbed with the latest scrubbing technology. 

"The emissions are subject to the EPA and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, so we will be applying for the appropriate air permits when it’s time.”

The data center Thornock has proposed to build on his family’s ranch land is different, he said, because he has seen the problems the woman mentioned and decided to try and solve them.

“The problem that I saw with the industry when I started is that the industry did not care how much power it consumed,” he said. “It did not care how much water was consumed for the compute. The whole point of starting this company was to provide a new type of infrastructure that was more environmentally responsible.”

The closed-loop system Thornock plans to use alone makes his data center different from 98% of them out there, he said. 

“If you go to Dulles, Washington, on the Washington River, the Umatilla tribe fought for years, filed lawsuits to find out how much water Google was using on a daily basis, because everyone had signed NDAs, including the city officials,” Thornock said. 

“Eventually, that had to be disclosed,” he added. "The Umatilla tribe got their wish, and I supported them in their efforts. So that’s how we’re different.”

Before public questions and comments, Thornock tackled the “sell-out” accusation he’d heard the night before at a three-hour public forum Prometheus Hyperscale hosted at Evanston’s Roundhouse, which drew hundreds.

“I want you all to know this,” Thornock said. “This for me is home still. This land in the community matters to me in a way that goes well beyond business.”

As far as leaving the state goes, the story behind that is short and telling. It’s the same story for a lot of his classmates too, who left Wyoming to find high enough paying jobs to support a family. 

“The day after I graduated from high school, I went to work for a company in Afton called Trio Electric as a welder,” he said. “Trio, at that time, could not find any work in Wyoming, so I moved to Colorado. That’s the end of my story.”

Thornock said he’d rather earn everyone’s trust with facts than ask for approval without facts.

“I didn’t start Prometheus and then come here looking for land,” he said. “I started it after looking at the land with my brother. We have known for a long time, and we saw an opportunity to bring generational wealth to a community that we’re already a part of.”

Thornock first put up slides showing exactly where his project will be. 

“As things have evolved, the section of land that we’re proposing to build a data center campus on has shifted, and we are now in Township 15 North Range 118 West, Section 13,” he said. “It’s right off exit 13 on Interstate 80. Most people blow by that, unless they’re working on the wind farms on the north side of the freeway. We are on the south side.”

The data center would be 500 acres, a size Thornock said would allow the company to maintain a buffer around the data center to help minimize its visibility to neighbors.

“The closest land use to us is the Evanston Silver Eagle refinery, which you can see is the postage stamp to the left of the little BLM section,” he said. “The rest of the land is vacant.”

The initial campus will support more than 1.25 gigawatts of computing capacity, which Thornock said would be developed over five phases. 

“The build footprint, which is the actual buildings, is expected to cover roughly eight to nine football fields worth of space,” he said. “And for perspective, your county planner and GIS specialist asked me to arrange a tour for them of an operating data center that’s more or less like this one. 

"It exists in West Jordan, Utah, and in that case it’s directly across from a single-family subdivision.”

Water use, once the facility is completed, will be around 15 homes’ worth.

“That’s the entire campus, not per building,” he said. “And again, your county planning folks have seen a facility very similar to this one in size, and it uses that amount of water. They can say that because they’re up and running.”

Uinta County planners voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend permit approvals for a huge 1.25-gigawatt data center. “Officials need to do their research on data centers,” said one of the few people from the standing-room-only crowd to speak out.

Daily Darwin: Friday, December 8, 2023

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