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

<title>Daily Cartoon 2: Thursday, December 26, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon 2: Thursday, December 26, 2024

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Florida woman who owned a behavioral health clinic in Cheyenne has been ordered to pay back more than $870,000 to Wyoming Medicaid for bilking the federal agency with fraudulent claims.

Federal prosecutors say her daughter helped carry out the scheme by assisting with billing and falsifying service documentation while working for the clinic.

Tera Marie Campbell, 47, of Maitland, Florida, owned The Olive Branch LLC, a behavioral health clinic that provided autism services in Cheyenne and Minot, North Dakota, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming said Thursday in a statement announcing the women’s sentences for conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

Campbell used the business to submit fraudulent Medicaid claims over several years, including claims for services provided by employees who lacked required certifications, claims that were upcoded to higher-paying services and bills for appointments that never occurred, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Investigators said some of those claims were submitted for dates when the clinic was closed and even while Campbell was out of the country on vacation.

Campbell's daughter, Tayler Ann Krauss, 27, of McDavid, Florida, worked as the clinic's medical biller between December 2020 and October 2022. She was instrumental in providing service documentation used to support fraudulent claims.

The investigation concluded the clinic relied extensively on untrained employees, falsified certification and supervision records, and knowingly billed Wyoming Medicaid for services that did not meet Medicaid requirements, according to prosecutors.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Joint Investigation"}]

The case was investigated by the Wyoming Attorney General's Office Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

U.S. Attorney Darin Smith said in a statement that Medicaid fraud "steals taxpayer dollars from programs that millions of Americans depend on and undermines care for vulnerable patients.

"I am committed to holding accountable those who exploit these programs for personal gain."

Smith said his office will continue working with federal and state partners to investigate and prosecute health care fraud, saying the effort is aimed at protecting public resources and preserving confidence in the healthcare system.

Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz added in the statement that the prosecution and conviction of Campbell and Krauss demonstrates the value of cooperation between state and federal law enforcement agencies and praised the work of his office's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

Smith nor Kautz responded to Cowboy State Daily's request for an interview beyond the prepared statements released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sentence Handed Down"}]

U.S. District Judge Kelly H. Rankin sentenced Krauss on Monday and Campbell on Tuesday in federal court in Cheyenne.

Campbell and Krauss were indicted May 21, 2025, and both pleaded guilty April 9 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

Campbell was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. Krauss was sentenced to two years of home confinement.

The judge ordered the women to jointly pay $735,717.63 in restitution to Wyoming Medicaid. Campbell was also ordered to repay $135,890.91 to the military's Tricare health care program.

The court ruled Krauss is jointly responsible for up to $71,509.44 of that amount.

Campbell was separately sentenced in January in a related North Dakota Medicaid fraud case.

In that case, she received a three-year suspended sentence, three years of supervised release and was ordered to repay an additional $225,000 to North Dakota's Medicaid program.

Federal courthouse cheyenne 9 28 23

<title>Florida Woman, Daughter Ordered To Pay Back $870K They Stole From Wyoming Medicaid | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Florida woman who ran a Cheyenne behavioral health clinic, and her daughter, have been ordered to pay back more than $870,000 they stole from Wyoming Medicaid. They funneled fraudulent claims through the clinic for years, say federal prosecutors.

Florida Woman, Daughter Ordered To Pay Back $870K They Stole From Wyoming Medicaid

A Cheyenne father has been charged with child endangerment after Laramie County Sheriff’s Office deputies say he repeatedly told them his infant son was asleep inside his house when instead the baby was strapped inside a hot Cadillac Escalade parked outside the home.

Jhadon Robert Michael Curry, born in 1998, made his first court appearance on Tuesday and was set for a July 31 arraignment, according to charging documents made available by the Laramie County Circuit Court on Thursday.

The investigation began when deputies were dispatched around 8:34 p.m. June 16 to a home in south Cheyenne after receiving a report of an allegedly impaired man who was about to drive away with a child in the vehicle, according to court documents.

When they arrived, Curry repeatedly insisted the baby was inside the house and not in the Escalade, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in his case. 

After looking for he infant for just over 30 minutes, deputies eventually found the baby crying inside the locked SUV.

The child was sweating profusely, crying loudly and "very hot to the touch,” the affidavit says. American Medical Response was called to evaluate the infant.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Empty Crib"}]

Deputy Aaron Mondragon entered the home and asked Curry where his son was, the affidavit says. Curry allegedly answered that the baby was asleep in a back bedroom.

[{"type":"text","text":"Mondragon searched the room and found only an empty crib."}]

When the deputy told Curry the baby wasn't there, the man changed his answer, saying the infant was "on the bed," the affidavit states.

[{"type":"text","text":"The deputy searched again but still couldn't find the child."}]

While deputies continued searching the home, Curry called the child's mother on speaker phone and told her he had "just put the baby to sleep," according to investigators.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Crying From SUV"}]

After searching the house a second time, Mondragon walked outside to Curry's Escalade, where he found the infant strapped into a rear-facing car seat in the locked SUV.

[{"type":"text","text":"Another deputy reported hearing the baby crying from inside the vehicle."}]

Even after deputies located the child, investigators say Curry continued insisting the infant wasn’t in the hot vehicle and inside the house.

When asked where the baby was, Curry allegedly pointed toward the residence and yelled, "Yeah! He is in there! I just put him to sleep!"

[{"type":"text","text":"Moments later, deputies asked him again."}]

"He is in the house! What are you talking about?!" Curry allegedly replied, the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Man, He's In My Car?'"}]

Deputies instructed Curry to unlock the vehicle, but he said he didn't have the keys.

After retrieving them from inside the house, Curry unlocked the Escalade with the key fob.

By that point, Mondragon had already opened the SUV and was removing the infant from the car seat.

According to the affidavit, Curry looked at the deputy and asked with surprise, "Man, he's in my car?"

[{"type":"text","text":"He then quietly added, \"I didn't get back too long ago.\""}]

The deputy who wrote the affidavit described Curry's voice had lowered in tone, "as if ashamed."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Cover Story"}]

Investigators wrote that the infant was "sweating profusely, crying very loud and a lot," and was "very hot to the touch, like he had a fever."

According to the affidavit, Curry later whispered to the child's mother that he was bringing the baby to her workplace so she could breastfeed him.

The child's mother told investigators Curry had made up the explanation and asked her to repeat it to deputies, according to the affidavit.

Using a timeline compiled during the investigation, deputies concluded that the infant had been left inside the locked SUV for about 31 minutes with the windows rolled up.

Curry has been charged with one count of child endangerment, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both if convicted.

During his initial appearance Tuesday, Judge Antoinette Williams set Curry's bond at $7,500 cash only.

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

Federal safety officials warn that children are especially vulnerable to heat inside parked vehicles because their bodies warm three to five times faster than adults.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the temperature inside a vehicle can rise about 20 degrees in as little as 10 minutes, and cracking the windows or parking in the shade does little to slow the increase.

Heatstroke begins when a child's core body temperature reaches about 104 degrees, and temperatures of 107 degrees or higher can be fatal.

Historical weather observations from the National Weather Service's Cheyenne airport station show it was about 75 degrees outside when deputies arrived that evening at Curry’s house.

The NHTSA reports there is no amount of time that is safe to leave a child unattended in a vehicle because dangerous temperatures can develop even when outdoor conditions seem relatively mild.

Jhadon Curry 7 2 26

<title>‘Very Hot To The Touch’: Cheyenne Father Accused Of Locking Baby In Hot SUV | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Cheyenne father has been charged with child endangerment after deputies say they found his infant "sweating profusely, crying very loud and a lot” inside a locked SUV. The baby also was "very hot to the touch," said investigators.

‘Very Hot To The Touch’: Cheyenne Father Accused Of Locking Baby In Hot SUV

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Government & Politics

Executive

Cheyenne’s Board of Public Utilities isn’t accepting industrial wastewater associated with data center systems until further notice after a contractor for Meta Platforms contaminated the city’s wastewater system, prompting months of cleanup.

The announcement was made by the Board of Public Utilities (BOPU) on Thursday in conjunction with naming the Meta company as the source of the initial contamination.

It also comes more than four months after the Meta company — which is building a huge $800 million data center in south Cheyenne — disrupted the city’s reclaimed wastewater system with a rare bacterial contaminant.

Goat Systems LLC was in “significant noncompliance" with the city's industrial pretreatment regulations after discharging wastewater contaminated with Cupriavidus gilardii, a bacterium that interfered with operations at the city's water reclamation facilities and contaminated the municipal reuse water system, according to the BOPU’s Thursday statement.

Goat Systems LLC is the corporate entity Meta uses for construction of its sprawling nearly 800,000-square-foot Cheyenne data center campus known during development as 

Cheyenne City Councilman Pete Laybourn said learning that the contamination originated from Meta's data center was unwelcome news.

"It's a very, very unpleasant surprise," Laybourn told Cowboy State Daily. "I have a lot yet to learn. It definitely complicates matters."

Laybourn said he has already expressed concerns about some of the arrangements the city has made with data center operators, adding that he expects the disclosure will prompt additional discussion.

"It's about the last thing we need right now," he said. "But it's a reality we're going to have to work through.”

Mayor Patrick Collins likewise expressed disappointment in Thursday's announcement.

"I think it's a disappointment to everyone involved," he told Cowboy State Daily.

Collins also praised the BOPU for catching the contamination and getting the city's sewage reuse system cleaned up. 

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

Thursday’s announcement marks the first time city officials have publicly identified the company behind the contamination, which was first discovered in February and prompted months of investigation and public speculation.

According to the statement, Goat Systems immediately stopped discharging wastewater from fill-and-flush operations at Meta's Cheyenne Data Center CHY 1-2 after being notified of the contamination.

BOPU also revoked the company's industrial discharge privileges for those operations effective March 24.

[{"type":"text","text":"The incident has led to broader changes beyond Meta's project."}]

BOPU also is suspending acceptance of industrial wastewater from data center fill-and-flush and closed-loop system operations until further notice while officials evaluate how to prevent future incidents.

The city said the action is intended to protect the integrity of Cheyenne's wastewater treatment system.

Calls to Cheyenne’s Public Utilities Office were not immediately returned Thursday.

"The BOPU appreciates the public's patience throughout this process," the agency said in the statement. "By conducting a thorough and diligent review, we have been able to reach a final resolution while ensuring continued protection and integrity of our wastewater treatment system."

A spokesman for Meta told Cowboy State Daily in an email statement that the company is working with its general contractor to "resolve this issue."

"Meta is supporting the efforts of our general contractor, Fortis, to resolve this issue with the city of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities," the statement says. "When the board shared that it found a substance in the city's wastewater — not public drinking water — Fortis immediately stopped discharging industrial wastewater and began hauling it offsite.

"Fortis also began its own water testing with an independent environmental specialist which has found no trace of the substance," the statement adds. "Meta is committed to being a good neighbor in Cheyenne, including through the protection of local water resources, and will continue encouraging collaboration between Fortis and the board until this situation is resolved.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Months Of Questions"}]

The disclosure comes after months of questions surrounding the source of the contamination.

BOPU previously confirmed the bacterium had entered the city's wastewater treatment process through an industrial user but declined to identify the company while the investigation remained underway.

The contaminant was traced to wastewater generated during data center fill-and-flush operations, a process used to clean and test cooling systems before a facility begins operation.

Meta's Cheyenne campus, one of the largest private construction projects in the city's history, spans hundreds of acres in the High Plains Business Park and is expected to encompass roughly 800,000 square feet when completed.

 that Meta was the company behind the previously unnamed Project Cosmo development.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Questions Remain"}]

Thursday’s announcement answers one of the biggest questions surrounding the incident but leaves others unresolved.

Among them are how the BOPU intends to regulate future data center wastewater, how the suspension of accepting industrial discharges associated with data centers affects other facilities under construction in Cheyenne and whether any long-term environmental or public health impacts are expected.

Meta IMG 7791 7 2 26

<title>Cheyenne Won’t Take Data Center Wastewater After Meta Contractor Contaminated System | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Cheyenne announced Thursday it's suspended taking wastewater associated with data center systems after a Meta contractor contaminated the city’s wastewater system, prompting months of cleanup. "It's a very, very unpleasant surprise,” said a city councilman.

Cheyenne Won’t Take Data Center Wastewater After Meta Contractor Contaminated System

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

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

A lucky photographer managed to get a once-in-a-lifetime photograph of a solar halo 

 in case of being in just the right place at just the right time.

The Beyond Earth Institute shared the photo

 of the 22-degree solar halo that appeared Wednesday when the sun was directly over Devils Tower. 

"One of nature's most beautiful optical displays" lasted for only a few minutes before the clouds changed, and the halo faded away,” said the nonprofit group, which says it’s mission is "enabling human migration into the solar system."

When Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day saw the photo, he was immediately concerned it might be an AI-generated image. After review, this one checks out 

and has a scientific — not science fiction — explanation.

It’s not a callback to the time an alien ship famously hovered over Devils Tower in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

“It’s the clouds,” Day said. “Those are the perfect clouds at the right altitude and the right sun angle. It's a spectacular picture.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Perfect Angle"}]

The phenomenon in the photo is a 22-degree solar halo. Day said that 22-degree angle is the crucial component.

“Those are cirrostratus clouds,” he said. “They’re thin, high-altitude clouds with hexagonal-shaped ice crystals inside because they’re so high, and that hexagonal shape causes 22-degree angles. That’s how you end up getting a circle.”

Cirrostratus clouds tend to form between 20,000 and 43,000 feet in the atmosphere. They’re well known for 

 and other optical phenomena when sunlight shines through them.

What’s remarkable about the Beyond Earth 

 image is that the sun was at the perfect angle for the photographer to see the full circle, Day said. That’s the trickiest part of capturing a full solar halo.

“The best analogy I have is a rainbow,” Day said. “If you’re in the right spit with the right sun angle, you’ll see the whole rainbow from end to end. Solar halos happen more often than you’d think, but the cloud conditions and sun angle might only give you a partial halo.”

The sun is always at the center of a solar halo. The fact that this solar halo appeared when the sun was perched 

 the summit of Devils Tower was a brilliant stroke of luck for the photographer.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Cloudy With A Chance"}]

Most atmospheric halos are the result of light shining through ice-laden clouds. Even rainbows and 

 are halos, though they appear as arcs because the light is diffracted from water droplets above the ground.

“We get halos through water droplets like in the fog, ice crystals from clouds, or ice crystals in really cold air,” Day said. “For 22-degree solar halos, you need the right sun angle and these high cirrostratus clouds, and you don’t get them all the time.”

Even in the heat of summer, Day said it can easily be cold enough for clouds loaded with ice crystals to form over Wyoming.

“You'd be surprised how quickly it gets cold at this time of year,” he said. “It’s usually around freezing at 15,000 feet and well below freezing at 20,000 feet and above.”

Day expected that many of Wyoming’s outdoor and wildlife photographers have seen partial or full solar halos during their long sojourns in the wilderness. Nevertheless, this solar halo above Devils Tower is something special.

“They probably see these things more often than your average Joe, just because they put themselves in those situations,” he said. “But I'm sure all those photographers will tell you that their best photos were the ones they didn't plan, and this is definitely one of those. It’s a gorgeous photo.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Angels, Devils, Or Extraterrestrials"}]

Hundreds of thousands of people reacted to Beyond Earth’s solar halo photo with varying perspectives.

Many saw it as an angelic symbol crowning Devils Tower with divinity, while others wondered if this was a harbinger of what Steven Spielberg depicted at Devils Tower in 1977’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

Day’s expertise on sky-related systems doesn’t extend to celestial, extraterrestrial, or heavenly forces, but he didn’t require any of them to understand the solar halo.

“When you get these cirrostratus clouds moving in, there’s the opportunity that this will happen,” he said. “This appears to be an earth-based phenomenon.”

Devils Tower halo 7 2 26

<title>‘Spectacular' Solar Halo Spotted Over Devils Tower | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A lucky photographer got a once-in-a-lifetime shot of a solar halo over Devils Tower on Wednesday. “It’s a spectacular picture,” said meteorologist Don Day. “Those are the perfect clouds at the right altitude at the right sun angle."

‘Spectacular' Solar Halo Spotted Over Devils Tower

For nearly a year, the man known only by his scattered bones on a remote Wyoming mountainside remained a mystery.

Investigators found pieces of his skeleton spread across rugged country near the Sweetwater Gap Guard Station, along with a tent and personal belongings. 

An identification card hinted at who he might be, but proving it would require an investigation stretching from Sublette County to Scotland, involving Interpol, foreign police agencies and DNA collected half a world away.

On Thursday, the Sublette County Sheriff's Office announced the mystery has finally been solved.

The remains belong to John Gillies, a Scottish man who would have been 69 years old this year.

"This case is a testament to the dedication of everyone involved and the strength of partnerships that extend well beyond our county and even our nation's borders," Sheriff K.C. Lehr said in a statement.

"What began as the discovery of unidentified remains in a remote area of Wyoming ultimately brought together local, state, federal and international partners with one shared goal — to give a family answers,” he said.

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

The investigation began Sept. 6, 2025, when Wyoming Game and Fish personnel 

discovered scattered human skeletal remains

 in a remote section of the Wind River Mountains near the Sweetwater Gap Guard Station.

Authorities later described the location as "very remote," in an area that sees little traffic outside of occasional search-and-rescue missions.

Deputies found disarticulated skeletal remains, a tent, and personal belongings. At the time, authorities said foul play did not appear to be a factor.

Four days later, a 14-member search team made up of deputies, detectives, Sublette County Search and Rescue volunteers and U.S. Forest Service personnel combed roughly 20 miles of rugged terrain, recovering additional skeletal remains.

By late December, a forensic anthropologist estimated investigators had recovered about 85% of the skeleton and concluded the remains had likely been in the wilderness for about six years.

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

Among the items recovered at the scene were personal effects that eventually led investigators to believe the man could be Gillies.

With no immediate next of kin in the United States, detectives contacted Gillies' ex-wife on Sept. 16, 2025.

Although she had not yet received confirmation that the remains belonged to her former husband, she provided photographs, medical history and details about his life.

[{"type":"text","text":"One message stayed with investigators throughout the case."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I wanted you to know he was more than bones\" she had said. "}]

The sheriff's office called her compassion and willingness to help "a powerful reminder that every unidentified person is someone's loved one."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Investigation Crosses An Ocean"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The investigation soon expanded across the Atlantic."}]

Detectives contacted Saint Mary's Church in Kirkintilloch, Scotland, which helped locate Gillies' surviving relatives and assisted with an international death notification.

Through Interpol, Police Scotland and the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement International Bureau, investigators obtained DNA reference samples from Gillies’ family, the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office reports.

Those samples arrived in Wyoming on Feb. 10. The following day, investigators personally transported the family DNA and the recovered skeletal remains to the Wyoming State Crime Laboratory in Cheyenne for comparison.

On Tuesday, the lab confirmed the remains were biologically related to Gillies' surviving family members, bringing the nearly yearlong investigation to a close, along with six years of limbo overall for the family.

[{"type":"text","text":"Investigators immediately notified his family in Scotland."}]

At their request, the Sublette County Sheriff's Office and the Sublette County Coroner's Office are now working with Interpol to return Gillies' remains home for burial.

The sheriff's office did not say how Gillies came to be in the isolated Wyoming wilderness or whether he had been reported missing before his remains were discovered.

[{"type":"text","text":"Authorities also did not announce a cause or manner of death."}]

Instead, investigators focused Wednesday on the collaboration that ultimately restored a name to a man who had spent years missing and unidentified.

"We are grateful to everyone who played a role in helping bring John home," Lehr said.

The sheriff's office specifically thanked the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Sublette County Search and Rescue, the U.S. Forest Service, the Wyoming State Crime Laboratory, Interpol, Police Scotland, the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement International Bureau, Saint Mary's Church in Kirkintilloch and, most importantly, Gillies' family "for their patience, trust and assistance throughout this investigation.”

Missing man found inset

<title>Scattered Bones Found In Remote Wyoming Wilderness ID'd As Missing Scottish Man | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Scattered human bones found in Wyoming's rugged Wind River Mountains nearly a year ago have been identified as a Scottish man. "I wanted you to know he was more than bones,” his ex-wife said when contacted by investigators.

Scattered Bones Found In Remote Wyoming Wilderness ID'd As Missing Scottish Man

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Around Wyoming

Lake Powell, a key reservoir on the Colorado River, is shrinking toward "dead pool," which means water won't flow downriver anymore — and that could in turn pinch Wyoming’s municipal and industrial water supplies with more demand from Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

Already at critically low levels, Lake Powell is close to being "dead pool," which means water won't flow downriver anymore. That has Wyoming cities and industries worried that will mean more demand for water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

Daily Cartoon 2: Thursday, December 26, 2024

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