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<title>Bonus Video: Monday, May 27, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Bonus Video: Monday, May 27, 2024

 Now let's all watch a log get obliterated by throwing it in front of a high pressure stream of water.....

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

Andrew Rossi

Business

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 between 1966 and 2025, but many ranchers 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Screwworm and cattle

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

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

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

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Riverton man who admitted to slitting the throat of a Wind River Reservation man, binding his hands and feet, wrapping his body in hotel bedding and dumping it in the snow was sentenced Thursday to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Fremont County District Judge Jason Conder imposed the sentence on John William Goodman, describing the case as a "brutal killing of a human being" and one "replete with an overwhelming abundance of aggravating factors."

The sentence comes more than three years after 37-year-old Gustave Elmer Yellowhair's body was discovered by "little kids," partially buried in snow on the Wind River Reservation, Conder said during Thursday's hearing.

Fremont County Attorney Micah Wyatt urged the court to impose the maximum sentence available, arguing Goodman had already received "substantial mercy" through a plea agreement that reduced the charge from first-degree murder to second-degree murder and dismissed a separate kidnapping charge.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"This is not a normal second-degree murder,\" Wyatt told the court."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Even After The Victim Was Dead'"}]

Wyatt argued Yellowhair was not killed in self-defense or during a drunken fight.

"Even after the victim was dead, the violence did not stop," Wyatt said.

Goodman attempted to decapitate Yellowhair after killing him, Wyatt argued, a fact he said demonstrated an "extreme de-valuing of human life."

[{"type":"text","text":"\"That fact matters,\" Wyatt told the judge."}]

Wyatt argued Goodman then treated Yellowhair's body as "disposable," abandoning it in a remote area before later bringing two underage girls to view the remains.

"This is not an isolated event from an otherwise peaceful person," Wyatt said before walking the court through a lengthy and violent criminal history that included multiple assault and battery convictions.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Defense Argued For Lesser Sentence"}]

Assistant Federal Public Defender Valerie Schoneberger acknowledged the gravity of the crime but argued for a lesser sentence.

"This case involves the death of a human being and it's tragic," Schoneberger said. "We don't dispute a serious sentence."

Goodman endured a lifetime of instability and hardship, Schoneberger said, noting he was arrested when he was only 14 years old.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"He has a history of being mistreated by the system,\" she said."}]

She also pointed to a family history of alcohol abuse and described a life shaped by dysfunction and trauma.

Then Schoneberger reviewed five homicide cases she considered similar to Goodman's, including one she characterized as more egregious, involving a father who killed his premature infant and attempted to conceal the child's remains.

Schoneberger argued those cases demonstrated that a lengthy prison sentence could be imposed without condemning Goodman to spend the remainder of his life behind bars.

[{"type":"text","text":"Goodman declined to address the court before sentencing."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Judge Rejects Comparison To Other Cases"}]

Judge Conder said Schoneberger was "spot on" when describing the many hardships Goodman had faced throughout his life, and that he had endured "innumerable tragedies."

At the same time, Conder noted that Goodman had inflicted tragedies on others.

Conder rejected the defense's invitation to compare Goodman's sentence to punishments imposed in unrelated cases.

"That's illogical,” the judge said, adding that what happens in "some other court" does not dictate what sentence should be imposed in a case with a different set of facts.

In addition to the life sentence, Conder ordered Goodman to pay $6,355 in restitution to victim services.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Jailhouse Boasting"}]

in March 2023 after the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs was alerted that Goodman had shown two underage girls a dead body on the reservation.

When FBI Special Agent Scott Jensen arrived at the scene, he found Yellowhair partially buried in snow, according to an affidavit filed in his case. His feet protruded from the snowpack, and investigators discovered the body wrapped in bedding with the feet bound by a cord.

Despite the gruesome discovery, it would take more than two years before prosecutors formally charged Goodman with murder.

During that time, investigators with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation and Riverton Police Department continued working the case while Goodman sat in jail on unrelated charges.

They reviewed recorded jail calls, interviewed associates and cultivated multiple confidential informants, the affidavit says.

According to court records, several witnesses told investigators Goodman had spoken openly about killing a man at a Riverton motel, cutting his throat, wrapping the body in motel bedding and dumping it on the reservation.

Investigators also reviewed calls in which Goodman discussed a gang he called the "Maniacs" and made statements they interpreted as admissions connected to the killing.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Single Hair Becomes Critical Evidence"}]

While witness statements helped investigators piece together the timeline, forensic evidence ultimately provided one of the strongest links to Goodman.

When Yellowhair's body was discovered, investigators recovered a hair clutched in the victim's hand. During the investigation, Goodman reportedly told an associate he had learned his hair had been found with the remains and said that was why he cut his own hair short.

[{"type":"text","text":"The breakthrough came when FBI laboratory testing analyzed the hair."}]

Initial testing found a possible DNA association with Goodman. Investigators later collected cheek swabs from Goodman and submitted them for comparison.

Results returned in April 2025 showed it was 13 sextillion times more likely that Goodman contributed the DNA found in the hair than an unknown person, according to court records.

Investigators also found DNA on motel room keys and USB cords recovered from the crime scene that showed strong support for a mixture containing DNA from both Goodman and Yellowhair, according to the affidavit.

Combined with witness statements, jail calls and other evidence gathered during the two-year investigation, prosecutors said the forensic findings helped solidify the case that ultimately led to Goodman's murder conviction.

John W Goodman Wind River Indian Reservation sign 7 9 25 copy

<title>Riverton Man Who Slit Man’s Throat And Dumped Body Gets Life In Prison | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Riverton man who admitted to slitting the throat of another man, wrapping his body in hotel bedding and dumping it in the snow was sentenced Thursday to life in prison. "Even after the victim was dead, the violence did not stop,” said the prosecutor.

Riverton Man Who Slit Man’s Throat And Dumped Body Gets Life In Prison

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Public Lands

President Donald Trump’s decision to lift restrictions on motorized use of federal lands dating back to the 1970s has some Wyoming motorsports enthusiasts saying the move prioritizes much-deserved public access.

Others worry that it will cause a wildlands disaster, subjecting wildlife and non-motorized users to noise and destruction of habitat.

The Trump administration on Friday rescinded Executive Order (EO) 11644, issued in 1972 by President Richard Nixon, along with President Jimmy Carter’s 1977 EO 11989, which amended and strengthened Nixon’s order.

Throughout the ensuing decades, those orders shaped how federal land agencies managed the use of ATVs, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, and other motorsports vehicles.

The orders directed the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to designate where off-road vehicles could and could not be used.

The stated goals of the orders were to protect resources, mitigate user conflicts, and minimize environmental damage.

Trump’s move is good news for Sweetwater County Commissioner Taylor Jones.

An avid off-roader and snowmobiler, he’s been a vocal critic of the controversial BLM Rock Springs Resource Management Plan, which he argues is too restrictive for motorized use.

"Certainly, I’m thrilled,” Jones told Cowboy State Daily. “I've always been a strong proponent for public access to public lands.

“There are a lot of areas in the national forest and in the mountains that should be open for access,” added Jones, who sits on the Wyoming State Trails Advisory Council.

Jones said he understands the misgivings of hikers, birdwatchers and others who seek isolation and silence on public lands.

As he sees it, the current restrictions push off-roaders into certain areas. That increases friction between motorsports enthusiasts and other public lands users, Jones said.

Lifting restrictions could disperse motorized users across the landscape and ease tensions, Jones said, adding that it could make it easier to maintain a balance between those user groups.

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

Avid mountain biker, hiker and skier Amber Travsky of Laramie told Cowboy State Daily that lifting motorized restrictions is a “terrible” idea.

“There are roads and trails designated for ATVs, and I have no problem with that,” she said. “There is so much opportunity already for off-road vehicles, I don’t see why it needs to be everywhere."

Off-road vehicle use can have wide-reaching effects on other uses, Travsky said, because of noise and potential damage to the landscape, particularly fragile areas such as wetlands.

Travsky has long been an advocate for the non-motorized Medicine Bow Rail Trail in Albany County. She said she’s not sure how Trump’s rescinding of the previous executive orders will affect that trail.

However, there’s been “chronic” unauthorized motorized use of the rail trail for years, so she wonders if lifting restrictions will just make that worse.

She understands why motorized users are tempted to jump on the rail trail. A nearby route intended for motorized use is in horrible shape, she said.

“We’ve sat down with the off-road vehicle people and worked toward a solution,” she said, which could entail improving the ATV trail.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Low-Impact Dirt Bikes"}]

Jason Harris of Lyman has participated in long-distance dirt bike races and said he welcomes Trump’s decision.

“If it means that I can ride my dirt bikes in some new places, then I’m stumping for it,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

He’s also happy to see less federal control over public lands.

Harris said he’s seen vegetation “recover quickly” from dirt bike use because the motorcycles are lighter than other off-road vehicles, and cut only a single track.

As he sees it, more widespread use of dirt bikes and more freedom for riders won’t damage Wyoming’s prized landscapes.

“I’m an enthusiast for all motorsports, but my area of specialty is dirt bikes,” he said.

Relaxing motorized use restrictions could have unintended consequences for hunters, Sierra Club spokesman Nick Gevock of Butte, Montana, told Cowboy State Daily.  

“It’s going to dramatically push elk down onto private ranches where they cause fence and crop damage” while also reducing public hunting opportunities, said Gevock, the Sierra Club’s organizing strategist for Northern Rockies wildlands and wildlife.

“Large-scale use of ATVs on public lands” can also spread noxious weeds, push sediment into mountain springs and disturb delicate wildlife habitat, he said.

“This is indicative of the Trump administration’s attitude toward public lands,” Gevock said. “There was no reason to do this, other than to give a nod to the ATV crowd that we’re going to give you free rein over public lands.”

He also worries that it will lead to many more “user-created (motorized) trails” cropping up in isolated areas.

Public land should get the same level of respect that private land does, Gevock added.

“I’m a fair-chase elk hunter, and never once has a rancher who has granted access to public hunting said, ‘’Well you can go anywhere you want,’” he said.

ATV medicine bow 7 17 23

<title>ATV Riders Cheer Trump Opening Access To Federal Lands, Critics Expect Disaster | Cowboy State Daily</title>

President Trump’s lifting of restrictions on motorized use of federal lands dating back to the 1970s has some Wyoming motorsports enthusiasts cheering a move they say prioritizes public access. Others worry that it will cause a wildlands disaster.

ATV Riders Cheer Trump Opening Access To Federal Lands, Critics Expect Disaster

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

Law Enforcement

For more than 30 years, the body of an unidentified woman discovered in the remote desert along Interstate 80 in rural Nevada has kept her secrets hidden.

The woman, known colloquially as “Shafter Jane Doe,” had been beaten and shot in the chest and back.

Her nude body was posed on the ground, arms extended to either side in the shape of a cross with legs slightly parted.

Less than a week after her death on Nov. 16, 1993, a geologist who had pulled off at the remote Shafter exit off I-80 to stretch his legs discovered her body, according to news reports from the time.

Later investigation in 2010 revealed that the woman had spent seven months in Afton, Wyoming, which was determined through the isotope testing. 

For years, her donated headstone has read, “Who Am I?”

Now more than 32 years after the gruesome discovery, authorities finally have an answer.  

Her name is Marion Hertha Alexander, who was a German immigrant who moved to California with her family in 1972.

After a decades-long investigation, members of the Elko County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement partners told the Elko County Commissioners on Thursday afternoon that they identified her through the use of advanced DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy.

The decades-long investigation also revealed the woman was in Afton, Wyoming, for about seven months before she was murdered. 

Alexander left home around age 18, and her family told investigators that Alexander was a free spirit who liked to drift around.

Her family questioned where she had gone, but given her lifestyle, they did not report her missing to law enforcement.

Her living family members were notified of the identification in January of this year, Elko County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Douglas Fisher stated, and continue to be in touch with law enforcement.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Justice"}]

Her suspected murderer, however, will not see justice.

Authorities were closing in on Roger Lee Durkee of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who was identified through semen found on a vaginal swab that yielded a full DNA profile, authorities said.

The profile was run through the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) but did not result in a match, so the Elko County Sheriff’s Office contracted a private group to perform forensic genetic genealogy analysis in February 2022 that led to Durkee as a potential suspect.

Further investigation indicated that Durkee was likely the murderer, but as detectives began planning their trip to Wisconsin to make an arrest, they learned that Durkee had died on Nov. 13, 2025.

He died within 14 days of detectives learning Alexander’s identity.

Now, however, Alexander will be properly laid to rest.

The Elko Sheriff’s Office asked the commission — and were granted — money to buy a proper headstone to finally put her to rest.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Piecing Together Mystery"}]

Authorities worked for decades to identify Alexander through the use of several forensic tools.

Initially when she was discovered, Alexander’s face was beaten beyond recognition, so the FBI created a computer-generated image of her likeness to help local authorities attempt to identify her, according to a 1993 article by the Elko Daily Free Press.

Along with her image, authorities had little else to go on.

They were able to extract a partial print from her right thumb, which did not find a match in any federal databases.

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.

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