The names serve as placeholders for now: “Motel Mike” and “Pine Bluffs Pete.” Two men whose fates decades ago brought them to Wyoming, where they ultimately died and are buried in unmarked graves in Cheyenne.
“Mike” passed away from a drug overdose in a Cheyenne motel in April 1977. The only thing known about him is that he listed his hometown as Niagara Falls, New York, when checking in.
“Pine Bluffs Pete,” meanwhile, was a transient who was hit by an oncoming train while attempting to cross the tracks in July 1996.
A statement from the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office said the Hispanic man had likely hopped the train in Ogden, Utah, and didn’t see the eastbound train passing at about 70 mph, killing him instantly.
Other than these scant details, nothing else is known about their lives. Both are buried in unmarked graves in Lakeview Cemetery in Cheyenne, where they were discovered by twin sisters and genealogists, Megan McWilliams and Ashley Kroner of Genetics Uncovered.
The two found the unidentified men on the Find a Grave website, an online database of cemetery records overseen by volunteer genealogists and cemetery associations.
The fact that these men went to their graves unnamed did not sit well with the sisters, who are determined to find out their identities and reunite them with family.
“These were people,” Kroner said. “They were someone's loved ones, and they shouldn't be forgotten and lost.”
The sisters have placed “not forgotten” memorials on the bare ground of the two men’s graves as they attempt to unravel their mysteries.
Easier Said Than Done
Since starting the pro bono service, the sisters have learned piecing together the past can be tenuous work, especially in the absence of so little information.
Along with scouring Ancestry.com for news articles documenting any details about the men’s deaths, they’ve also reached out to law enforcement and coroners for incident reports and other documentation with no luck.
They’ve been told none exists.
In researching “Motel Mike,” McWilliams even called all the motels in Cheyenne, only to learn that managers and owners have long since changed over. Other motels never kept records. One news article stated that “Mike’s” fingerprints were recorded by the FBI, but they have yet to contact the agency.
The women hit the same brick walls when researching “Pete.”
Neither man is listed in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) that tracks missing, unidentified and unclaimed remains. Though registered users can input missing person cases, which they do every month, only coroners and law enforcement can enter information about unidentified and unclaimed remains.
Because the two men are not in the national database, it makes it harder for family members or genealogists to find information about them. This is why the sisters are so eager to lend their skills in helping to pin down the men’s identities.
Not Uncommon
What’s surprising, too, is how many deceased people go unidentified every year. In 2023, 483 new unidentified and unclaimed persons were entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) last year, including two in Wyoming.
A human skull that remains unidentified was recovered in Wamsutter last November as well as a deceased unknown male who was found fully clothed in a creek bed in Cheyenne.
The sisters are closely tracking a Baby Doe case in Cheyenne, which has been under investigation by the Laramie County Sheriff's Office since 2021, they said, with help from Othram, a DNA sequencing company that specializes in forensic genetic genealogy.
There are currently 14,793 unidentified individuals listed in NamUs, including seven in Wyoming dating back to 1988.
“Sadly, not all unidentified individuals are reported in the NamUs database,” Kroner said, “so the number is actually higher. These individuals need their names back and they deserve justice.”
Solving Crimes
To this end, the sisters founded Genetics Uncovered in Cheyenne in 2021, which they hope to turn into a nonprofit. They also have a Facebook page, where they highlight a missing or unidentified person every day.
They’ve also worked with law enforcement on cold cases. McWilliams’ husband, Scott, oversees the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation’s crime lab. McWilliams assisted the agency on a cold case from 1995 and received a meritorious award for her work.
McWilliams has also taught basic genetic genealogy courses for DCI agents and hopes to continue helping as the agency rolls out its new forensic genetic genealogy (FGG) pilot program later this summer, following the passage of legislation this year that provided $150,000 in funding.
FGG has been a game changer in helping law enforcement solve homicides, sexual assaults and to identify human remains using DNA profiles that have been voluntarily uploaded into genealogical databases like GEDmatch in combination with traditional genealogy research to isolate distant relatives using family trees.
Most famously, FGG was responsible for the arrest of “Golden State Killer” Joseph DeAngelo in 2018, and most recently for the arrest of Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of killing four students at the University of Idaho last fall.
McWilliams isn’t at liberty to discuss her work with DCI, she said, and purposefully chooses not to delve into the details or gritty aspects of the crimes. Rather, she focuses on the meticulous building of family trees and helping law enforcement identify suspects or persons of interest based on genealogy.
Unraveling Their Own Family Mystery
Admittedly, it’s tedious, time-consuming work that takes years to master. The sisters have been honing their skills since they were teens. McWilliams estimates she’s been practicing for 25 years and Kroner for more than a decade.
McWilliams got interested in her own family tree at age 16 after her father gave her a pile of old photographs, including cabinet cards, tin types and an ambrotype of family dating back generations. Some had names and others didn’t as she started to build out the family tree using those photos.
Kroner, meanwhile, also was interested in researching her family’s roots. She remembers asking for Family Tree Maker software for Christmas as a teen and using it to do a begin mapping out her family tree.
Their interest in genealogy really spiked with the advent of online DNA sites like 23andMe and Ancestry that process DNA and connect family members who have also opted to share their profiles online.
After submitting their DNA, the sisters were able to connect with first, second and third cousins to fill out their tree using these online profiles as well as tracing their lineage through census records, death and birth certificates, obituaries and other documents available online.
In doing so, like many other families have discovered, there were skeletons in their closet. They learned that their father’s paternal grandfather was not his biological father, which sent McWilliams down a new path to discover her father’s biological origin.
In doing so, through countless hours of meticulous research, she was able to trace her father’s biological grandfather, who she learned was a descendent of a Texas Ranger, making him the descendent of the prestigious Texas First Family. Members include the state’s first settlers and people who served the Republic of Texas before 1846.
In order to document the lineage, McWilliams had to submit piles of paperwork. In return, she received an official certificate and a complimentary letter lauding her research.
Apart from solving their own family mysteries, McWilliams and Kroner hope to extend their skills to law enforcement, adopted children and others hoping to locate a family member in what they call angel cases.
They do this work free of charge but accept donations on their website. They periodically do free Ancestry DNA kit giveaways on their Facebook page also and encourage everyone to submit their DNA to better help law enforcement identify unclaimed remains and solve cold cases.
Their organization is only getting started, they said, and they are eager to continue their work, starting with their goal of giving “Motel Mike” and “Pine Bluffs Pete” their proper names back.
Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.
