The boyfriend of missing Kenyan nursing student Irene Gakwa, who disappeared from Gillette, Wyoming, more than three years ago, has been conditionally granted parole and may be released as early as the end of this month.
Nathan Hightman, 41, is serving a three- to six-year sentence after pleading guilty to three felonies related to Gakwa’s disappearance, including deleting her email account, draining her bank account and maxing out her credit card in excess of $6,000.
Hightman was granted parole by the Wyoming Board of Parole on Oct. 8 with conditions requiring him to complete additional programming, according to Margaret White, executive director of the parole board.
Assuming he completes the necessary programming, he could be released as early as March 28.
Hightman is still considered by police to be a person of interest in Gakwa’s disappearance after she vanished from the couple’s Gillette home in late February 2022.
Out Of The Loop
Gakwa’s family called the news “disappointing.”
Her oldest brother, Kennedy Wainaina, who lives in Meridian, Idaho, told Cowboy State Daily Thursday that he and his family were not told about Hightman’s parole hearing.
He saw that Hightman was eligible for parole on March 28, 2025, on the Wyoming Department of Corrections (WDOC) inmate locator and reached out to Gillette police and the Campbell County Attorney’s office for information.
He was told by police Hightman had been paroled and was then instructed to call WDOC Victims Services for more information. He said he called Friday and left a message, and when he called back again, it went to voicemail.
Had he known, Wainaina said, he and his family would have driven the more than 1,600-mile round trip to Wyoming to advocate against Hightman’s release at the parole hearing. He and his family have attended all of Hightman’s court proceedings to date, making the long drive on several occasions.
“We had no clue that he was granted parole, and we would have definitely attended to present victim statements,” he said. “Very disappointing to see how the system is favoring him, and the victim is not even informed.”
This is made more complicated by the fact that the victim is technically still missing. In order to be notified, Wyoming law requires victims to register with WDOC’s Victim and Witness Notification Program.
White confirmed the family wasn't notified because they had not registered.
Also, Wainaina would have no idea that Hightman had been scheduled for a parole hearing because Wyoming law considers this privileged information accessible only to certified victims, judges, law enforcement and other affiliated departments.
Wyoming parole hearings and other details related to probation and parole are also not open to the public or media unless special permission is granted by the board.
Other states are much more transparent.
Neighboring Idaho, for example, lists the names and times of upcoming parole hearings and revocations on the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole website, along with instructions and a link for registrants who’d like to attend.
Nevada also allows the public to attend parole hearings and includes a monthly schedule of upcoming hearings with the inmates’ names listed on the Parole Board website. Nebraska, Colorado and Montana likewise allow the public to attend and announces upcoming parole hearings and decisions with names on their affiliated websites.
Wyoming provides none of this information on its Board of Parole website. Though the site does include a schedule of upcoming parole hearings, names are not listed nor are decisions. Nor is this information contained in the board’s annual report, which provides only a tally of hearings for the year, results and other measures.
Minimum Sentence
It’s unclear when Hightman will be released.
Wainaina was told that Hightman still has to complete classes as part of the prison’s re-entry program, which may take him about three months.
He served the minimum of his three- to six-year concurrent sentence after pleading guilty to the three felonies in June 2023.
According to Stephanie Dack, public information officer for WDOC, Hightman’s minimum release would be March 2025. Had he served his full sentence, he would not have been eligible for release until July 17, 2029.
Hightman’s record while incarcerated is likewise privileged information under state statutes so any infractions he might have had are also closed.
In 2023, he was briefly under investigation by the Torrington Police Department for an unknown offense after being transferred from the maximum-security prison to the medium facility in Torrington. The agency ultimately dropped the case in February 2024 for lack of evidence, according to Matt Johnson, Torrington chief of police.
Cloistered In Secrecy
Wyoming’s statutes allow for a lack of transparency, according to Dan Fetsco, who served as both executive and deputy director for the Wyoming Board of Parole for nearly a decade from 2007 to 2017.
Fetsco, a former Carbon County prosecuting attorney and defense attorney who now teaches at the University of Wyoming, said the board has historically been cloistered in secrecy due to its strict public information laws.
In fact, Fetsco, who is working on a book about the history of commutations in Wyoming, was roadblocked when he attempted to get a list of parole revocations as part of his research. Technically, this information is available through WDOC, but the board presented him with heavily redacted documents with no names.
“It was virtually useless,” he said. “…So if the agency could release it, the board had no need or legal right to redact that information. Not only that, it was a terrible waste of staff resources.”
Under his tenure, the board was more lenient about letting media into hearings, including granting the Discovery Channel full access to hearings for a documentary. He’d like to see this process become more transparent overall.
He believes that parole hearings should be treated like all other court proceedings and be open to the public.
“How is this any different now that they’re coming out of prison?” he said. “I’d like to see this reformed to be more like other surrounding states.”
As for Hightman’s release, Fetsco said it’s a requirement that inmates served their minimum sentence before being released on parole, although the minimum release date can be reduced through inmate good time, granted by the WDOC, and special good time, which he said the board grants in extraordinary cases.
He also said that victim input in the hearing process is crucial and factors heavily into the decision-making process.
And though he strongly favors granting inmates parole, he said, he also believes the process should be much more transparent.
A protestor stands outside Nathan Hightman's home in Gillette in July 2022. (Courtesy Stacy Koester) 
(Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
Nathan Highman, back, in court. 
Local residents gathered with the Gakwa family at a vigil at Legacy Park in Gillette in July 2022 to share memories of Irene Gakwa. (Courtesy Stacy Koester) 
Police and FBI agents searched Nathan Wightman's house after Irene Gakwa disappeared in February 2022.
Person Of interest
Wainaina regrets that the family was unable to participate in the process.
“We feel like a victim all over again, except this time it’s right in our face with the people who are supposed to be protecting us,” he said.
Though Hightman has not been charged with any crimes related to Gakwa’s disappearance, he’s nonetheless considered a person of interest in her disappearance, according to police.
Prior to his sentencing in June 2023, the police investigation has centered heavily on Hightman, including a nearly eight-hour search of his home in Gillette in October 2022 by both the Gillette Police Department and the FBI.
That home has since been foreclosed on and resold.
Likewise, the police released several cryptic clues involving Hightman, including his Walmart purchase of boots and a shovel using Gakwa’s credit card after she vanished.
Gillette police also asked the public to be on the lookout for a 55-gallon metal drum that may have been discarded within the county as well as any sightings of a silver Subaru matching the description of Hightman’s vehicle at the time.
Police have been mum about their investigation and have released few updates following their initial release to the public in May 2022, but say it’s still an active and ongoing investigation, according to Brent Wasson, deputy chief of the Gillette Police Department.
For his part, Hightman maintains his innocence and told police that Gakwa left on her own accord after packing her belongings into two plastic bags and leaving in a dark-colored SUV he didn’t recognize.
An Intelius background search lists Gakwa’s address as a residence in San Antonio, Texas, from March 2022 to August 2024. Police spoke to the property owner who said that he didn’t know her and that she’s never lived there.
Hightman did not return a request for comment from Cowboy State Daily sent through Access Corrections, an external inmate portal messaging system.
However, in earlier text exchange with this reporter in May 2022, Hightman said he’s innocent, and that he would love to share his side of the story, but his legal counsel had advised against giving interviews.
Where is Irene?
Meanwhile, more than three years later, Gakwa remains missing and her family fears the worst.
Gakwa, then 32, moved to Gillette with Hightman in the summer of 2021, where she was studying nursing at Gillette College. Along with school, she worked part-time jobs and is described by her family and friends as a kind person who would do anything for anyone.
In earlier interviews, Wainaina and his brother, Kris Gakwa, and father, Frances Kambo, said that Gakwa wanted to move to the country to join her brothers who had left Kenya to pursue careers within the medical industry.
Gakwa initially moved from her parent’s home in Kenya to Meridian, Idaho, in 2019 to be close to her brothers and their families. Not long after arriving, she met Hightman on Craigslist and the two began dating before ultimately moving to Wyoming.
In the wake of Gakwa’s disappearance, local search groups led by Stacy Koester scoured the countryside with dozens of public searches looking for clues as well as the 55-gallon steel drum.
Koester has since formed a tight friendship with Gakwa’s family, who Wainaina said he considers to be like family.
Koester was likewise upset to hear the news that Hightman had been granted release.
“This is ridiculous,” Koester told Cowboy State Daily. “Irene’s family suffers more while this man gets to walk free knowing what he did to her.”
In the meantime, the police investigation continues while Hightman’s release date and terms of probation remain unknown.
Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.
