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

<title>Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 4, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 4, 2025

 Dog's routine after working a 9 - 5 day.....

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.

Blm vandal 2 6 5 26

<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

Jimmy orr

Jimmy Orr

Wildlife

A California man said he was dragged 20-30 feet by a grizzly before it finally let him go in an attack he sustained late last month in Glacier National Park.

The report of the attack, which up until now has been scant of specifics, has turned vivid with Daniel Crago discussing the blow-by-blow of his bear encounter on a 

Crago says he was on his last day of a hiking trip when he peeled away from his friend to “take in some views.”

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s when he spotted a “smaller” grizzly."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then the worst thing happened: he spotted a larger grizzly."}]

“I did as you’re told, I alerted the bear,” he said, which was about 15 feet away.

[{"type":"text","text":"That did no good."}]

“At that point, I was so close it likely frightened the bear,” he said. “As soon as it saw me, it charged down and attacked me.”

“I threw my arm up, it bit my arm, dragged me about 20-30 feet, and took off,” he said in the post.

“I could see my hand, and it was just dangling there,” he told 

The National Park Service said park employees believe that loud rushing water made it difficult for the hiker or the bears to detect each other.

Calling the experience “terrifying,” Crago said he was fortunate in that a pediatrician was in the area who was able to stabilize the arm while another hiker made noises in an attempt to keep the bears from coming back.

[{"type":"text","text":"The bears did not return."}]

Another hiker, he said, alerted emergency services and a helicopter airlifted him to nearby hospital in Kalispell.

He’s had three surgeries so far, he said, and is expecting at least one more.

"I am facing significant medical bills from the treatment and care I received," he said. "The costs are overwhelming, and I am reaching out for help to cover these expenses so I can continue my recovery."

Retired ecologist Chuck Neal of Cody, who frequently hikes solo in grizzly country, told Cowboy State Daily that hiking in Glacier Park demands extra alertness.

“Encounters can happen at just a few yards away” if hikers aren’t paying keen attention, Neal said.

“It’s a high-quality habitat for bears. It’s better habitat for bears than Yellowstone is” and tends to attract a younger crowd, he said.

“Those younger hikers go barreling up those trails without paying that much attention,” Neal said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Busy Season For Bear Attacks"}]

Crago’s is the latest of multiple bear encounters with humans in the region so far this season.

Earlier in the month, Glacier Park reported its 

 since 1998 when the body of Florida resident Anthony Pollio, 33, was found May 6 two days after he was reported missing.

His body was found about 50 feet from the trail he’d apparently been hiking on.

 when they were attacked by a female grizzly with cubs near Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.

On May 26, a man running on a trail in British Columbia, Canada, was attacked by a female black bear with two cubs.

Outdoor adventurer Michael Hodges was photographing grizzlies in the Glacier Park backcountry on the day that Pollio’s body was discovered about 15 miles away.

Later, he was on the same trail where the alleged May 28 bear attack was reported.

“I was up on the trail the week of May 6 and saw many grizzlies,” he stated in a text message to Cowboy State Daily last week.

“I warned hikers from California and Texas at the trailhead that there was an unusual number of griz, and to be extra alert,” stated Hodges, a novelist and internet personality.

Daniel crago 6 5 26

<title>California Man Says Grizzly Dragged Him 30 Feet In Glacier National Park Attack | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A California hiker said after he surprised two grizzlies last month on a trail in Glacier National Park, the larger bear bit through his arm and dragged him 30 feet. “I did as you’re told, I alerted the bear,” he said, but the bear attacked him anyway.

California Man Says Grizzly Dragged Him 30 Feet In Glacier National Park Attack

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

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.

Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 4, 2025

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