Sublette County authorities have charged two men with variations of first-degree murder in the death of a 23-year-old Big Piney man.
Court documents say the man died of arrow wounds from a compound bow, and his scalp showed post-mortem BB wounds.
Though authorities found Dakota Farley, 23 of Big Piney, dead in a local home Wednesday, a community fundraising effort dedicated to his funeral costs claims he died earlier.
"On February 3rd, Dakota Farley tragically lost his life," says a note atop a change jar at a local Fast Stop convenience store. "With permission from his dad... we are putting up a fundraiser and Raffle in his honor to try and help lay him to rest."
Rowan Littauer, 19, of Big Piney, was charged Friday with first-degree murder and mutilation of a dead human body, according to a statement Sublette County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Travis Bingham released Friday.
The murder charge is punishable by a term of life in prison or the death penalty. The mutilation charge is punishable by up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines, or 10 years in prison if the action was taken to hide a felony.
Orion Schlesinger, 18, of Big Piney, has been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder – which carries the same potential sentence as the murder charge – and with felony theft. The theft charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
Sublette County Sheriff’s deputies responded Wednesday to a report of a deceased male at a home in Big Piney, the statement says. They arrived to find Farley inside the home with “significant injuries,” it adds.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The statement says the investigation is ongoing and encourages anyone with information about the case contact Detective Sgt. Travis Lanning at 307-367-4378.
Bow And Arrows
An evidentiary affidavit in the case compiled by Lanning says investigators learned of Farley’s death when someone reported receiving a text from Littauer saying he’d “shot Dakota with a bow and 2 arrows.”
Sublette County Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Tollison met with Littauer, who admitted he’d “shot a man with a bow and two arrows… in the arm and the head,” and that Schlesinger was with him at the time, the document says.
Littauer also showed deputies on a map application on his cellphone where Farley’s home was, which was also the death scene, Lanning wrote.
Lanning and other deputies and detectives converged on the home and found Farley lying face-down in the living room, the right side of his face pressed against the carpet with dried blood beneath it, says the document.
Lanning noticed eight wounds on Farley’s scalp which looked like BB punctures, but weren’t bloodied, indicating they happened post-mortem, the detective wrote.
Citing interviews with people familiar with the suspects, the affidavit says the pair were friends, and made a plan the evening of Feb. 1 to go to Farley’s home and kill him.
Schlesinger went to Littauer’s home, where Littauer gathered a compound bow, broadhead-tipped arrows, and a BB gun, the affidavit says.
They then walked the 1.4 miles to Farley’s home, it adds.
They entered the home, found Farley standing in his living room, and Littauer shot his compound bow and broadhead-tipped arrows through Farley’s right arm and chest, “resulting in his nearly-instantaneous death,” Lanning wrote.
At some point, Schlessinger “came to possess a purple and grey .22-caliber revolver” Farley had owned, the affidavit says.
Lanning wrote that Littauer was the one who shot eight BBs into Farley’s scalp.
When investigators searched Littauer’s home, they found a compound bow, black arrows, broadhead arrow tips and a BB gun pistol, says the affidavit.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
