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<title>You Still Here? Monday, April 8, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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You Still Here? Monday, April 8, 2024

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

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 how thru-hikers regularly powered past him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teton County Search and Rescue

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

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

Australian Man Dies Near Grand Teton While Hiking Continental Divide Trail

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

Wolf advocates are offering a $10,000 reward for the the identity of any hunter shooting a member of a famed Yellowstone National Park wolf pack that recently denned outside of the park in Wyoming. 

Social-media influencer Jonas Black of Austin, Texas, told Cowboy State Daily during a telephone interview Wednesday that posting the reward is necessary to protect the Mollie’s Pack, particularly 12-year-old Wolf 1090 F. 

Those wolves have spent most of their lives in Yellowstone and aren’t afraid of people, so there’s no way it could be a “fair-chase” hunt, Black said. 

Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Angi Bruce denounced the move in a text message Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily. 

Wyoming, Montana and Idaho have laws keeping wolf hunters’ identities confidential to shield them from doxing, harassment and stalking.

“Putting an animal before the welfare of a person is outrageous,” Bruce said. “This is the exact reason our legislators put this statute in place – to prevent harassment of our hunters.”

 that he and others are offering the reward if any of the Mollie’s wolves are shot during the season, set to begin Sept. 15. 

“Anybody harvests one of these wolves during Wyoming’s wolf season and somebody snitches? That snitch gets ten grand cash,” Black wrote.

During the interview, Black said the intent is specifically to protect the Mollie’s, not to undermine the states’ statutes protecting wolf hunters’ identities. 

The Mollie’s this summer denned and are raising pups on the Shoshone National Forest. 

During its 30-plus year history, the pack has spent nearly all of its time inside Yellowstone, where hunting is forbidden. 

So, the wolves are essentially like “zoo-type animals” insofar as having little fear of humans, Black said. 

Black said he isn’t anti-hunting and supports fair-chase hunting, when animals are actively trying to evade humans.

“I’m not going to interfere or try to interfere with state laws. But with this pack, it’s like shooting a dog. Man, it’s unreal,” Black said. 

‘I’m Going To Burn Your House Down’

Wyoming Statute § 23-1-304(d)(vi) protects the anonymity of wolf hunters. Under the statute, Game and Fish may not release any private or confidential information regarding legal wolf harvests, and that information is not a matter of public record. 

Montana and Idaho also have statutes that keep wolf hunters’ identities confidential. 

That wouldn’t stop private individuals from revealing that information to other private parties, though. 

Those statutes are there for good reason, said Randy Newberg, a prominent outdoorsman and hunting content creator from Bozeman, Montana.

Newberg featured a successful wolf hunt in an episode on his 

He told Cowboy State Daily the blowback was vicious. 

“People from all over the world were emailing me with crazy stuff. ‘I’m going to burn your house down. I’m going to kill your dogs.’ Wow,” he said. 

Newberg noted that as a prominent figure in the hunting world, “I live in a fishbowl,” and so he expected the pushback. 

But rank-and-file hunters should be spared that sort of harassment if they shoot any of the Mollie’s, Newberg said. 

“If their information got out there, I can assure you, that person is going to undergo a level of threat and intimidation that’s completely out of line,” he said. 

Black said the possibility of facing worldwide condemnation should deter anyone from even trying to hunt the Mollie’s. 

It could be similar to the global shame heaped upon the American hunter who went to Africa and killed the beloved “Cecil the Lion,” he said.  

And that’s the point of offering the reward he said. 

Black is a dog trainer who became an outspoken wolf advocate in the wake of the capture, torture and killing of a wolf by Daniel resident Cody Roberts in February 2024. 

Black has stated that his efforts, along with Wolf and Wildlife Advocates president Kim Bean and others, were instrumental in a felony animal cruelty charge being brought against Roberts, to which he pleaded guilty.  

In April, a judge sentenced Roberts to a possible 18- to 24-month prison term if he fails probation.

Black said that with the Mollie’s his beef isn’t with Game and Fish.

“This has nothing to do with Game and Fish,” he said. "I think Game and Fish is doing a great job with the Mollie’s.”  

Wolf & Wildlife Advocates’ Bean said Game and Fish, along with a rancher in the pack’s denning area, have been trying to coax the pack back into the park.

Game and Fish has kept the Mollie’s location confidential. 

However, some people have discovered the pack’s location and posted it on social media, “putting a bull's-eye on the pack,” Bean said. 

Black said some of those who have revealed the pack’s alleged location are supposedly wolf advocates. 

Publicizing the pack’s location is f***ing stupid,” he said. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Fair Game’"}]

Montana outdoorsman and retired game warden Jeff Darrah told Cowboy State Daily he supports the statutes shielding wolf hunters’ identities. 

“There is a concerted effort by some of these eco-terrorists to find those hunters,” said Darrah, executive director of Montana Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife.

He acknowledged that emotions can run high when it comes to famous Yellowstone wolves such as the Mollie’s Pack. 

But when they pass outside the park’s boundaries “they become not a park wolf anymore but a Wyoming wolf. And they’re fair game,” he said. 

To mitigate the loss of Yellowstone wolves, Montana reduced the hunting quota to three wolves in each of the two hunt districts immediately north of the park, Darrah said.

“At one time, the quota there was up around 20 wolves,” he said. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Asshats’"}]

Newberg said it’s “very disturbing to me” that advocates are trying to work their way around state laws meant to protect the anonymity of people engaged in a legal activity. 

“How do we pick and choose?” he said of which legal activities should be protected. 

Newberg added that trying to expose hunters who might happen to shoot Mollie’s wolves could undermine the advocates’ cause. 

Bean said she, Black and others have hardened their stance only because of the hardened anti-wolf stance against the Mollie’s. 

There have been “hundreds” of people bragging about deliberately trying to find and kill the pack, she said. 

“They’re threatening to kill the pack, and we’re threatening to expose them,”  Bean said. “This isn’t about anonymity, this is about a bunch of asshats out there” threatening the Mollie’s Pack. 

Geriatric old wolf 1090 3 1 10 26

<title>Advocates Offer $10,000 Bounty To Name Hunters Who Kill Famed Yellowstone Wolves | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A social media influencer and others are offering a $10,000 bounty for the identities of hunters who shoot members of Yellowstone National Park's famed Mollie’s wolf pack this fall. Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce calls the bounty “outrageous.”

Advocates Offer $10,000 Bounty To Name Hunters Who Kill Famed Yellowstone Wolves

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

Greg Johnson

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

The good news is nobody vandalized the Persian Gulf War Memorial in Rock Springs. The bad news is that it had fallen into disrepair enough that a whole side of engraved names crumbled.

“The silver lining in this is it brings out so much good in our community,” said Mayor Max Mickelson about a flood of people asking how they can help fix the memorial since the damage was announced by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department on Tuesday.

“However, it should never have been allowed to reach a point where it is that vulnerable,” the mayor added.

The memorial, which has been in Veterans Park on the east side of Rock Springs for “at least 20 years,” has been a frequent target of vandalism in the past, the mayor said.

That’s why the first reaction was to assume vandalism when it was discovered that the whole right panel of names on the three-panel monument had fallen off.

“That particular (monument) has a history of being vandalized, so some of that damage and decay had come from that,” Mickelson said.

It was revealed that a child, not vandals, had accidentally triggered the collapse after the child’s mother contacted the Rock Springs Police Department to set the record straight.

“Following our initial community release (citing vandalism), a local mother contacted our department to report that her young child was involved,” the RPD says in a report on the incident.

“The mother was attending a sporting event at the park when her younger child returned to her covered in dust,” the report says. “At the time, she was unaware that anything had been damaged.

“The child was trying to read the names when a section of old, deteriorating mortar failed, causing the stone tiles to pull free and fall. We can confirm that this incident was not an act of intentional, criminal vandalism or malicious destruction.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"All Memorials To Be Examined"}]

That’s also good news for city residents who expressed outrage that military veterans could potentially be targeted by vandals, and then disappointment that the memorial had gotten to a state that it could crumble.

When Yellowstone Tile owner Steve Elwood learned about the damage to the memorial, he offered to donate his time to assess the damage and help get it fixed.

“No. 1, I love our country and I honor our troops and fully support them,” he said. “It’s a shame what happened to that wall.”

He also said he feels a sense of duty to his father, who worked to build a memorial wall in San Diego, where they used to live.

“I also want to honor my father, who recently passed away, and my father loved our troops more than anyone,” said Elwood, adding that other family members are veterans. “I want to do my part for our country. I didn’t get the opportunity to fight in a war. I want to do my part.”

He said that while he’s glad the damage wasn’t deliberate, he wants to make sure it’s restored in a way that it’ll last a lot longer.

“I was so glad to hear it was not vandalism. I was worried it was some little Communist teenager making a statement,” Elwood said. “It just broke my heart to see the names of the veterans crumble like that.”

Gilbert Pacheco Jr. is one of the names on the Persian Gulf War Memorial in Rock Springs.

“My name is on the memorial while serving on board the USS Princeton (CG 59), and I find this very sad,” he said in a response to the city’s initial report.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What’s Next?"}]

Now that the condition of the memorial has been brought to light, Mickelson said the city is already assessing the damage, and also will do an assessment of the condition of all the city's memorials.

“Now that we’ve reached a conclusion with how that damage happened, we’re working on how to assess all the memorials we have,” he said. “The intention is to not just reproduce what was there, but to do something that honors those men and women.

“I was very distraught when that was brought to my attention yesterday morning.”

If there’s a silver lining to the story, Elwood said it’s the child’s mother.

“By coming forward to say, ‘Hey, that was my kid,’ she’s showing accountability, which there isn’t much of these days,” he said. “Integrity is lost in today’s age. It was truly a great thing what she did.

“If not, we would all still be sitting here thinking it was vandalism.”

Rock springs Persian Gulf memorial 7 29 26

<title>Good News: Rock Springs Vets Memorial Not Vandalized. Bad News: It Crumbled Anyway | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The good news is nobody vandalized the Persian Gulf War Memorial in Rock Springs. The bad news is that it crumbled anyway. "It should never have been allowed to reach a point where it is that vulnerable,” the mayor said.

Good News: Rock Springs Vets Memorial Not Vandalized. Bad News: It Crumbled Anyway

Crime & Courts

Courts

 on 72 child sex and pornography charges in a Wyoming district court on Tuesday, John C. Smallbone was arrested on a fugitive warrant in San Francisco.

The 38-year-old Douglas man told Judge F. Scott Peasley through his public defender that he feared for his life if he were to show up for his plea hearing Tuesday.

In the meantime, it seems he was on his way to San Francisco, and was arrested by police officers there about four hours after his 3:30 p.m. hearing ended in a Douglas courtroom, according to the Converse County Sheriff’s Office.

 someone had put up to bond him out of jail last month.

That comes out to $62,500 for each hour of freedom he had between the time Peasley issued a new fugitive warrant for Smallbone and the time he was arrested in San Francisco, said Sheriff Clint Becker.

“Yeah, that’s about it. That’s pretty expensive,” Becker told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday morning. “I don’t know who put up the bond for him, but that’s the kind of chance you take.”

The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office confirms through its online inmate roster that Smallbone remains in custody there, being held on the Wyoming fugitive felony warrant.

Becker said he never doubted Smallbone would be caught again after a Fort Collins, Colorado, magistrate 

 there last week on his own recognizance instead of holding him for Wyoming authorities.

[{"type":"text","text":"But he’s pleased that happened as quickly as it did."}]

“We’re pretty happy with that, of course,” Becker said. “We didn’t want a person with those types of charges to be out and about. I had faith we would catch him.”

Becker said he couldn’t talk about just how his investigators — Lt. Ben Peech and Cpl. Amber Peterson — learned Smallbone was on his way to San Francisco. However, he praised their continued work on his case.

“I’m extremely proud of Lieutenant Peech and Corporal Peterson for their relentless dedication and professional investigative work,” he said. “Their persistence, combined with the excellent partnership and support of our colleagues in San Francisco, made this arrest possible.”

Smallbone also is supposed to return for another hearing in the Colorado court on Thursday to follow up on his arrest last week.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Hopefully …’"}]

Now that Smallbone has been caught fleeing Wyoming and the dozens of felony charges he faces here twice in less than a week, Becker said he hopes there isn’t a repeat of what happened in Colorado last week.

“That was my comment when I got called to let us know he was in custody,” the sheriff said. “Hopefully …”

Smallbone was arrested on a previous fugitive warrant in Fort Collins last Wednesday, and appeared the next day in Magistrate Heather Siegel’s courtroom, where she gave him a personal recognizance bond.

Officials in Wyoming and Colorado who worked to track Smallbone down have expressed frustration with that situation.

Kylie Masserman, a spokesperson with the Larimer County District Attorney’s Office in Colorado, told Cowboy State Daily via an emailed statement on Monday that the court had the proper documentation to hold Smallbone.

“The District Attorney’s Office strongly believes that this bond setting is dangerous and has put the communities in both Colorado and Wyoming at risk,” she said. “Giving a free pass to dangerous out-of-state offenders fleeing to Colorado sets a terrible precedent and risks further harm to the victims in the Wyoming case.”

Now that he’s been caught again, Becker said he’s confident Smallbone will be returned to Wyoming to face his charges.

And there will be more of those to face, Converse County Deputy Attorney Nate Shumway said during Tuesday’s hearing.

He told the judge that his office has filed amended charges against Smallbone that include the 72 he already had been hit with, plus more that he’s since picked up.

Those amended charges weren’t immediately available through the district court following the hearing.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Charges"}]

The list of charges against Smallbone is long, including:

• 1 count of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

• 36 counts of possessing child pornography.

• 16 counts of using a video camera to record intimate areas of another person without consent.

• 18 counts of knowingly manufacturing, generating, or creating child pornography.

• 1 count of possessing more than 3 ounces of marijuana (1.3 pounds).

He landed on the radar of the Converse County Sheriff’s Office after the mother of an underage girl reported concerning interactions her daughter had with Smallbone on May 9.

The girl was in a vehicle with Smallbone and others when he allegedly typed “if you suck me, I’ll lick you” on his phone and showed it to the girl, according to an affidavit of probable cause written by Peech.

“He also mouthed the words, ‘I want to see you naked,’” the affidavit says.

Smallbone later denied mouthing anything or showing the girl any messages.

That, along with other alleged disturbing interactions with the girl at Smallbone’s home that evening, started an investigation that revealed a trove of photos, videos and other child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on his electronic devices, the affidavit says.

The investigation also showed Smallbone had been convicted in 2002 of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust in Douglas County, Colorado.

He also had registered as a sex offender in Wyoming in 2014, but it was “later determined not to be required to register in Wyoming due to him being a juvenile at the time of his adjudication in Colorado,” according to the affidavit.

That was in reference to a 2001 case when Smallbone was 12 and was accused of sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl, the affidavit says.

While in treatment for that incident, he disclosed he also had sexual contact with at least seven other children, and five were younger than him at the time of the sexual contact.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What Investigators Found"}]

The case against Smallbone exploded when forensic examinations were performed on his cellphone and electronic devices, according to the affidavit.

On them, they found dozens of images and videos depicting prepubescent girls and boys performing a wide range of sex acts, the affidavit says. Many of the videos appear to have been created by Smallbone in rooms and spaces that are identifiable to connect them to alleged potential victims.

There also were videos of Smallbone having sex with an adult female, the affidavit says, adding that the woman told investigators she had no knowledge she was on camera.

The most disturbing allegations stem from a series of at least seven videos that the affidavit reports allegedly show a young girl having her pants pulled down and being subjected to having sex with a dog.

Along with the CSAM, investigators say they found “records indicating (his phone) had been used to connect to the Tor Browser, which is commonly used by subjects accessing CSAM to communicate within the Dark Web anonymously,” the affidavit says.

If convicted with maximum concurrent sentences, Smallbone could face up to 791 years in prison and fines of up to $710,000.

The most serious is the sexual abuse of a minor charge, which calls for a sentence of between 25 and 50 years.

Because of Smallbone’s apparent penchant for running from the charges, Sheriff Becker said his office was “very motivated” to catch him again.

Four hours after no-showing in court on 72 child sex and pornography charges in a Wyoming court on Tuesday, John C. Smallbone was caught in San Francisco. “We didn’t want a person with those types of charges to be out and about," said the sheriff.

You Still Here? Monday, April 8, 2024

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