One More For The Road

[{"type":"text","text":"You won't find more efficient garbagemen anywhere...."}]

One more for 7 27 24

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

<title>One More For The Road: Saturday, July 27, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

You won't find more efficient garbagemen anywhere....

One More For The Road: Saturday, July 27, 2024

 You won't find more efficient garbagemen anywhere....

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

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

Public Lands

The Bureau of Land Management is investigating multiple incidents of “irreparable” vandalism at six Native American rock art sites in the Bighorn Basin.

The BLM's Cody Field Office reports there was significant damage to multiple rock panels containing petroglyphs created by Wyoming's indigenous tribes. Many of the panels have been defaced with names carved into them, including “Erin,” and phrases scratched into the rock containing the ancient images.

A bonfire had been burning directly underneath one of the panels, which cracked and discolored the surface. Also, the BLM Cody Field Office said several panels were damaged by what appears to be gunfire.

“This intentional damage takes away future generations’ ability to view this part of our human history and to study these sites,” said Cody Field Office Archeologist Karina Black in a statement about the vandalism.

The BLM hasn’t released many additional details on the vandalism, but believes the illegal acts were “recent.” 

Damaging petroglyphs and rock art sites can result in criminal charges, including felonies, and violations can be pursued through civil action as well.

Cowboy State Daily was unable to reach the BLM Cody Field Office at the time of publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Persistent Problem"}]

According to an assessment by the Wyoming Cultural Records Office, at least 157 of Wyoming's 666 known petroglyph sites — more than a quarter of what’s known — have been vandalized.

Bonnie Smith, president of the Wyoming Association of Professional Archaeologists, was distraught when she learned of the extent of the damage to the sites in the Bighorn Basin.

“The rock art of Wyoming is not just images on stone,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “It is a conversation across generations. Once damaged, that conversation is silenced forever.”

Finding and prosecuting those responsible for rock art vandalism is difficult for the BLM, which is often unable to conduct extensive investigations due to a lack of staffing and funding.

In October 2025, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department offered a $10,000 reward for information on whoever 

 an important archaeological site near Dubois.

“If we can figure out who did this, we can start looking to get back what was taken,” Jason Hunter, regional wildlife supervisor for Wyoming Game and Fish’s Lander office, told Cowboy State Daily. “Right now, we’re looking for people who might have information, and we’ll go from there.”

There have been no public updates on whether any culprits have been identified and charged. That’s a common outcome for these incidents.

"People get away with this all the time,” Smith said. “We’ve been getting better about vandalism in Wyoming, (and) we want to believe that it's getting better, which makes these incidents unfortunate."

The BLM Cody Field Office hasn’t disclosed where the six sites are located in the Bighorn Basin.

After reviewing the photos, Smith thought they might be in Park County’s Oregon Basin east of Cody, where there are many known petroglyph sites. That makes the irreparable damage all the more egregious.

“The petroglyphs and pictographs of the Bighorn Basin are some of the oldest voices we have in the state,” Smith said. “As archaeologists, we recognize that rock art is more than a cultural resource.

"It is a direct connection to the people who shaped the history of the Bighorn Basin.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Crime And Punishment"}]

When someone is identified and found guilty of vandalizing rock art, the penalties can be severe.

In November 2024, Daniela Ganassim Ericksen was arrested on felony charges for damaging the Buckskin Gulch Petroglyphs east of Kanab, Utah. She caused around $7,000 of damage by carving several figures into one of the panels.

, she was sentenced to 12 months of probation and $14,853.36 in restitution.

She was also barred from entering all BLM lands and had to send a letter of apology to the indigenous tribes with a cultural association to the Buckskin Gulch Petroglyphs.

Smith and many other archaeologists celebrated the conviction, hoping it would send a strong message to other potential offenders.

“In my professional opinion, I think it's pretty fantastic that she was prosecuted at all," Smith said. "People who have been caught vandalizing petroglyphs usually get a slap on the wrist at best.”

However, there’s no way to undo the damage that’s been done,” Smith said. No amount of money or probation can restore these irreplaceable relics of human history.

“These rock art panels have survived millennia,” Smith said. “They shouldn’t have to survive us.”

The BLM Cody Field Office is encouraging anyone with information about the six rock art sites vandalized in the Bighorn Basin to contact the field office at 307-578-5900 or reach out to local law enforcement.

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<title>Six Bighorn Basin Rock Art Sites Burned, Shot In ‘Irreparable’ Vandalism | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The BLM is investigating multiple incidents of “irreparable” vandalism at rock art sites in the Bighorn Basin. They were burned, shot and had names scratched into them. "People get away with this all the time,” said a Wyoming archaeologist.

Six Bighorn Basin Rock Art Sites Burned, Shot In ‘Irreparable’ Vandalism

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Washington man is facing 14 wildlife-related criminal charges in Campbell County after Wyoming investigators say years-old Instagram videos, voice messages and cellphone data uncovered evidence of alleged illegal hunting trips that stretched back more than a decade.

Court records filed in Campbell County allege Bobby Chuck Ephrem, 48, illegally killed antelope and mule deer in Wyoming in 2014, 2015 and 2020, sometimes from vehicles, sometimes without licenses and at least once using a .22-caliber pistol that investigators say was illegal for taking big game.

The charges stem from an Idaho wildlife investigation that eventually led Wyoming Game and Fish investigators to social media posts, archived videos and cellphone extractions that they say show hunting activity in Campbell County.

An arrest warrant was issued June 4, 2025. Ephrem later appeared in Campbell County Circuit Court for a hearing on Tuesday, where bond was set at $75,000. Court records show he posted a surety bond on Wednesday.

As a condition of release, Ephrem is not allowed to leave Campbell County and is barred from hunting, fishing, trapping, collecting shed antlers or accompanying anyone engaged in hunting or fishing activities while the case is pending.

A voicemail seeking comment from the Campbell County Attorney's Office was not returned before publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Case Built From Phones And Social Media"}]

The investigation began in April 2024 when Idaho conservation officers shared information uncovered during an ongoing wildlife investigation, according to an affidavit filed by Wyoming Game and Fish Investigator Daniel Beach.

Investigators say Instagram videos, voice messages, and other evidence pointed them toward multiple incidents involving antelope and mule deer.

Beach wrote that he later traveled to Oregon in June 2024 to assist Oregon State Police while that agency executed a search warrant at Ephrem's home.

During the search and interview, investigators say Ephrem talked about several mounted animals displayed in his home and admitted to killing some of them in Wyoming.

The affidavit shows Wyoming investigators subsequently reviewed cellphone extraction data, Instagram videos and archived voice messages that they believe corroborated those admissions.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'No Permission, Just Shoot'"}]

Some of the most serious allegations center on an October 2020 antelope hunt in Campbell County.

Investigators discovered Instagram voice messages sent from Ephrem's account that referenced plans to hunt antelope in Wyoming.

One message cited in the charging documents read, "We're going antelope hunting today."

Another allegedly said, "No, just drive around and shoot shit. No permission, just shoot."

Investigators say they later identified the location shown in one of the videos as private property owned by Peabody Caballo Mining LLC south of Gillette.

Neither the company nor the rancher leasing the pasture granted permission for the hunting activity depicted in the videos, wrote Beach. 

In another video, investigators say Ephrem can be seen firing a rifle at antelope from inside a vehicle. 

Investigators also allege the video showed Ephrem handing the rifle to a younger passenger.

The charging documents include allegations of wanton destruction of antelope, taking big game from a vehicle, trespassing to hunt and accessory counts connected to those offenses.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The .22-Caliber Pistol Allegation"}]

A separate video described in the affidavit forms the basis for another series of charges.

Investigators say the recording showed Ephrem driving a Dodge Ram pickup while firing a pistol at multiple antelope from the roadway and adjacent ditch.

Beach wrote they later determined the firearm appeared to be a GSG 1911-style .22-caliber pistol, and that Ephrem fired 10 rounds at several antelope from close range.

During a June 2024 interview, Ephrem said, "I remember shooting, yes, got it.'" 

The case includes charges alleging illegal use of a firearm for taking big game, wanton destruction and taking big game from a vehicle.

Investigators also allege another man, who they say appeared in some of the videos, later confirmed witnessing portions of the hunt during a recorded interview.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Allegations Reach Back To 2014"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The investigation didn't stop with the 2020 videos."}]

Cellphone data allegedly connected Ephrem to an antelope killed in 2015 and a mule deer killed in 2014.

Beach wrote that Ephrem admitted during a 2024 interview to those killings. 

Wyoming licensing records showed Ephrem did not possess licenses for those species during the years in question, says investigators, and that Ephrem improperly used or transferred hunting licenses connected to his son during some of the incidents.

Cellphone photographs, taxidermy records and statements made during interviews were used to support those allegations.

The charges remain allegations. Ephrem has not been convicted, and the case will proceed through Wyoming's court system.

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<title>'No Permission, Just Shoot': Instagram Videos Lead To Wyoming Poaching Charges | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Washington man faces 14 Wyoming poaching-related charges after Game and Fish investigators say Instagram videos and phone data exposed illegal hunts over more than 10 years. “No permission, just shoot,” the man messaged, Game and Fish says.

'No Permission, Just Shoot': Instagram Videos Lead To Wyoming Poaching Charges

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Wyoming Republican Gov. Mark Gordon joined President Trump in Washington, D.C., on Thursday as the president allocated $700 million in public money for the coal industry. 

While calling Gordon a "great guy," the president invoked a Cold War-era law designed to boost energy production in the face of national security threats to allocate $700 million in public 

The announcement enters a whirlwind of increasing demand for energy from AI-driven data centers, the legal greenlight for an 

 and the global energy and development race with China.

At the White House gathering, Gordon touted the comparative cleanliness of the coal Wyoming produces. 

"When a kid grows up in Wyoming their education is paid for, in large part, by coal severance tax," said Gordon, adding that those same kids, when grown, can seek a job in the coal industry. 

"It's not just digging coal like we used to," said the governor, "It's high-tech jobs." 

The governor also referenced his recent trips to Japan and Taiwan, and said leaders there seek reliable, dispatchable and secure energy sources. 

"They can't get it as clean as they can from the Powder River Basin," said Gordon. The building of a coal port in Oakland, California - which part of the $700 million grant is slated to fast-track - is "absolutely essential for the lifeblood of our state and our coal mines," he added. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Gordon thanked the president for his vision. "}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"About Trump’s $700 Million Grant"}]

Coal leasing on federal land in the Powder River Basin — a coal trove centered mostly in Wyoming — has brought in billions of dollars in revenue to the state and its coal mining industry, as it supplies roughly 40% of the thermal coal needed by power plants owned by electric utilities in the United States.

President Donald Trump’s Thursday announcement lists three key objectives:

• Allocate $425 million to bolster 13 coal plants across the country, helping mines in Wyoming. 

• Allocate $75 million to boost construction of a coal export terminal in Oakland  — a project Wyoming’s coal industry has long sought to uncork the Asian buyer market;

• Send another $200 million in U.S. Department of Energy grant 

 to help build two new coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia — the first new U.S. coal plants since 2013 — and restart a Maryland coal plant. 

Companies in each of those states are expected to match that money or exceed it with their own investments, the announcement says.

The first two appropriations hinge on the Defense Production Act of 1950. The act of Congress calls U.S. security dependent on the nation’s own ability to supply materials and services for national defense “and to prepare for and respond to military conflicts” as well as disasters and terrorism.

The act authorizes the president to elevate national defense contracts over other government contracts, to interfere with the civilian market only where scarcities impede national defense, and incentivize the production of “critical components,” critical technology and other recourse needed “for the execution of the national security strategy of the United States.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Smells Like Coal"}]

When state Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, walked into a Riverton elementary school for a tour in 2019, he sniffed aloud and said, “Smells like coal.”

Coal production in Wyoming peaked in 2008,

 when the Powder River Basin produced nearly 450 million tons of coal,

 and has trended unsteadily downward since then. 

Wyoming surface coal production has fallen by 59.1% over the past 16 years. Thermal coal, which Wyoming produces, has seen lower demand in recent years.

lowering their demand nationally as the market has shifted to both natural gas and renewable energy.

Calendar year 2024 marked the first time Wyoming coal production had fallen below 200 million tons since 1992.

The industry saw it as a dark year, as President Joe Biden’s U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a 

Coal in 2025 yielded $134 million in severance taxes for Wyoming – the lowest since 2003.

That’s 19.5% of Wyoming’s severance tax haul, with oil generating 54.9% and natural gas yielding 21.9%.

U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis lauded Trump's Thursday announcement, calling it "exactly the leadership our nation needs."

"The growing demands of AI and modern industry require more affordable, reliable electricity which coal delivers,' said Lummis in a statement. "The West Gateway export terminal alone will open critical new pathways for Wyoming coal to reach global markets. Americans cannot afford an energy policy that leaves them in the dark, and with this investment, President Trump is making sure they never will."

U.S. Sen. John Barrasso praised the move as well, noting customers and Asia and globally would buy Wyoming coal, "if we could actually ship it to them." 

"Now is the time to unleash Wyoming's coal industry, and today's announcement is a crucial step down that path," added Barrasso. 

Gordon Trump and coal 6 4 26

<title>Trump Sending $700 Million To Coal Industry, Boosting Wyoming Coal Mines | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon joined President Trump in Washington, D.C., on Thursday as the president invoked a national security law to send $700 million to the coal industry. That includes $75 million to boost construction of a coal export terminal in Oakland.

Trump Sending $700 Million To Coal Industry, Boosting Wyoming Coal Mines

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.

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.

One More For The Road: Saturday, July 27, 2024

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