It was an early June morning in 2001, and Jamie Kamai was driving to work with his two young children in the backseat.
The 25-year-old was on his way to drop his baby daughter and young stepson off at the babysitter before heading off to his job as a delivery driver for Grier Furniture in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Things were going really well in Kamai’s life at the time, his cousin Fred Kamai told Cowboy State Daily, which is what makes what happened next all the more baffling and tragic.
The details are still hazy nearly 24 years later.
Eyewitness accounts vary in media reports at the time, but Fred said he believes another driver began tailgating Kamai somewhere along the way and stuck on his bumper for several miles, even as Kamai weaved in and out of commuter traffic attempting to lose him.
Finally, Kamai had had enough, Fred speculated, and pulled over on the shoulder on West College Drive about 75 yards of west of South Greely Highway in south Cheyenne.
He then jumped out of his vehicle and ran back to confront the other driver. Heated words were exchanged between the two through the driver’s open window, Fred said, until the man whipped out a 9 mm handgun and shot Kamai in the hand, flank and in his back as he retreated.
Kamai fell into his car, Fred said, while his 8-year-old stepson — who witnessed the shooting — ran to a nearby convenience store for help as the driver sped off.
To date, his killer remains at large.
Lingering Mystery
Who and why are the lingering questions that still remain almost 24 years later.
Fred still has no answers, and much like the many detectives who have looked into the case over the past two decades, can only guess as to what transpired and prompted his cousin to confront the driver.
Fred still remembers getting the call that his cousin had been shot.
The family had gathered at the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office to hear the news that Kamai had died en route to the hospital.
The best guess at the time was that it was a road rage incident, though Kamai could have just as easily been targeted and followed with some ill intent. Maybe he knew the driver or maybe he didn’t? Maybe it was a case of mistaken identity?
All of these questions plague Fred today.
What’s clear is that Kamai got out of his vehicle to confront the other driver.
Typically, Kamai was an easy going, fun-loving guy who shied away from confrontation.
However, given that his children were in the car, Fred things that his fatherly instincts may have kicked in and he was protecting his children.
The two cousins were close — along with Kamai’s brother John, who passed away last year — and Fred considered the guys more like brothers.
What bothers Fred most is how happy Kamai was in life when he was taken so young, he said. He’d just gotten engaged to the mother of his daughter and the couple was in the process of looking for a new home.
“His life was just starting,” Fred said.
Over the years, he’s become the de facto spokesperson for the family and continues to push for his cousin’s story in the media as well as stay in touch with detectives. He and his family will never stop pushing until they get answers.
Conflicting Statements
From the get-go, the case has been challenging, he said, with very few witnesses coming forward.
Oddly, it was a busy morning as parents walked their children to school or to work and a construction crew was set up down the road working.
Given the road construction on College Drive that morning, traffic had been whittled down to one lane. Despite the busy hour and congestion, very few witnesses claimed to have seen what happened, Fred said.
A sketch released by the sheriff’s office portrays the driver as a white man with short dark hair, a moustache and goatee and eyes shielded behind dark-rimmed sunglasses.
According to a 2001 article in the Casper Star Tribune, the driver had a medium build and may have been wearing a T-shirt with a motorcycle on it.
Varying accounts and witness statements disagreed on the color of the small pickup the shooter was driving.
Some witnesses reported it was a small black pickup with an older white camper shell and gray primer spots on the passenger door while others said it was a small red pickup with a white camper shell.
Fred remembers both descriptions of the truck and thinks that detectives ultimately determined it was red based on video surveillance from a nearby bank, but he couldn’t recall for certain.
Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak was also unsure of the color and referred Cowboy State Daily to Ryan Cox, commander and head of cold cases for the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), who did not immediately respond to requests for clarification and updates.
Kozak said the case predated his tenure as sheriff and his agency referred it to DCI in 2015.
Kozak, however, did grant an earlier interview with Renee Nelson, host of “Unsolved Wyoming: Cold Cases and Haunted Places.” His recorded interview also included former Laramie County Sheriff Detective Mark Hollenbach, which will be featured in an upcoming podcast about the case.
Hollenbach was one of the early detectives who looked at the case, and to date remains Fred’s favorite.
Hollanbach, who is listed as the maintenance supervisor with the sheriff’s office, has a long career with the sheriff both as detective and in other administrative roles during his more than 25-year tenure. Before that, he was a special agent for DCI and a patrol deputy, among other positions.
In his recorded interview with Nelson, Hollenbach said they received various reports from witnesses about both black and red small pickups with primer spots and white camper shells, including one account from an eyewitness who later reported seeing a red pickup driving erratically in the area that same morning.
He said investigators are interested in any information about anyone who may have been driving either color pickup with a white camper shell during that period in 2001.
Tattoo Artist Ruled Out
Much like the vehicle, so far suspects also remain elusive after numerous interviews over the course of two decades.
Hollenbach also lamented the fact that more people didn’t come forward given that it was such a busy intersection on a summer morning in broad daylight, he told Nelson during their interview.
Over the years, a few suspects have held authorities’ attention, including Fred, who was quickly ruled out after passing a polygraph test.
Initially, Fred said they were interested in a local tattoo artist who fit the general description and who quickly left town following the murder.
He was ultimately ruled out, though.
“In regards to the tattoo artist, yeah, we looked into him solid,” Hollenbach said in his recorded interview.
Over the years, detectives even hung posters in Wyoming prisons hoping that inmates would come forward with information, Fred said.
It appeared to have worked after an inmate had allegedly bragged about this being the second “Jamie” he had killed. At the time, the inmate was incarcerated for killing a man of the same name in Wyoming.
The man was questioned by detectives, according to Fred, but ultimately no arrest was made.
Fred doesn’t believe the guy has been ruled out completely, only that there wasn’t enough evidence to tie him to the crime.
Lack Of Evidence
Part of the problem is a lack of evidence, former Laramie County Sheriff’s Office Detective Sgt. Linda Renner said in a 2003 interview with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Back in 2003, they’d already blown through more than 250 leads with no luck.
Renner lamented to the paper the lack of evidence found at the scene: no smoking gun, no DNA, footprints or clothing, or even scratches on Kamai’s vehicle to indicate the two men had had a fight.
Anything that might help tell the story of what went down that morning between the two men wasn’t evident.
They also didn’t have solid camera surveillance, Renner said, with one camera at the convenience store positioned a few inches shy of where the two vehicles were parked and the other blocked by a Winnebago camper out front.
Nonetheless, the tips continued to trickle in, Renner told the outlet.
“There’s always hope,” she said, adding that it’s going to require a “big break” to solve it.
Updates
Today, DCI continues to actively investigate the case.
In his interview with Nelson, Kozak said that since taking over, the agency has re-interviewed several witnesses and conducted 30 supplemental reports as well as resubmitted evidence to various labs.
To date, however, there are no new solid leads, he told both Nelson and Cowboy State Daily.
That said, Kozak said he believes that this and all cases have the potential to be solved.
One of the things that can happen, he said, is that someone who knows the suspect gets mad at that person for whatever reason and comes forward with information or has a change in consciousness.
“That can blow a case wide open,” he said.
Both Hollenbach and Kozak urge anyone who thinks they may have information, no matter how big or small, to come forward.
Jamie Kamie was murdered on June 21, 2001, and is buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Cheyenne after being shot and killed at age 25 in Cheyenne. (Courtesy Find a Grave) 
Jamie Kamai stopped his car on West College Drive, approximately 75 yards of west of South Greely Highway, in south Cheyenne to confront the driver who was tailgating him. The white male driver subsequently shot Kamai three times and killed him, before speeding off. To date, the shooter remains at large. (Google)
Not Giving Up
Meanwhile, Fred has no plans of giving up. In the ensuing years, he’s become the family’s de facto liaison in pushing for answers and keeping Kamai’s story in the public.
Unfortunately, he believes the initial investigators botched it from the start by not blocking off the street long enough to do a more thorough search of the crime scene.
“They only closed it down for a couple hours when they should have closed it for more than that,” he said. “That’s where I feel they messed up, because they didn’t do a proper investigation.”
Nonetheless, he said he’s continuing to fight for their family, including Kamai’s daughter, mother and father, John, as well as his two sisters and their 100-year-old grandmother.
Also in memory of Kamai’s stepson, who passed away in his 20s.
Then there’s Kamai himself, who Fred considered a brother and who went out of his way to make everyone laugh whenever he was around.
“He would take the shirt off his back for anybody,” Fred said. “He was just the life of the party, and it was always great to have him around, because if you were down that day, he’d always find a way to bring you up.”
He had dreams of starting a family and buying his own home, Fred added.
“He was just taken far too young,” Fred said. “But we’re not going to stop trying to find who did this to him and get justice.”
Kamai is one of three unsolved cases that happened in Laramie County dating back to 1988 that are listed on DCI’s new cold case databasecold case database.
The others include the unidentified remains of an infant known as “Laramie County Baby Jane Doe” who was discovered near the intersection of Happy Jack Road and McKinney Drive on Feb. 28, 1988. The baby was determined to be a full-term Caucasian boy that is thought to be a potential homicide, according to DCI’s case notes.
The murder of 32-year-old Shawny Lee Smith in February 2003 also remains unsolved. Smith’s body was found in a field off Highway 85 in Weld County, Colorado, less than a mile from the Wyoming state line.
Anyone with information about Kamai’s murder or any of these unsolved cases is asked to contact the Cheyenne Sheriff’s Office at 307-637-6525 or DCI at 307-777-7181. Tipsters can also submit anonymously on DCI’s website.
Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.
