A 15-year-old Glenrock girl’s sophomore year of high school was marked by anonymous and fraudulent texts by someone who was working to make others hate her.
Now almost 17, Gillian Holman didn’t get her natural good cheer back until last Wednesday, when Glenrock woman Marcie Smith, 41, was sentenced to probation on two stalking charges in Douglas Circuit Court.
In Wyoming, misdemeanor stalking is punishable by up to one year in jail and $750 in fines. It’s not chargeable under the 10-year felony version unless the suspect injures someone or violates a protection order or terms of parole or probation in the process.
Now Gillian and her family are pushing for an enhanced penalty in cases where adults stalk minors.
Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, told Cowboy State Daily he’s taking up the cause. So far, his goals are to protect children’s mental health, and to “have this discussion” about whether Wyoming law should have tougher penalties for cases like this one. He’s been in touch with the chairmen of the state Senate and House of Representatives judiciary committees, and he hopes the legislative Management Council will adopt the topic as an interim study for those committees after its meeting April 8.
“If (it doesn’t), I have no problem looking into it as an individual legislator,” said Boner.
Gillian was two months into her sophomore year at Glenrock High School when the texts started. She was 15.
The people in her life started receiving anonymous messages, replicas of conversations with fake contact labels on them made to look like Gillian was part of them, and strange emails that seemed to have one goal: making Gillian look cruel and promiscuous.
The girl was an avid wrestler and a social butterfly. That was the second year Wyoming officially sanctioned the sport for girls, and for Gillian, that was a high privilege.
But something faded in her over the next year and a half, Gillian’s mother Cathy Holman told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday interview.
Through her attorney Patrick Lewallen, Smith declined Friday to comment to Cowboy State Daily.
‘Supposedly From Me’
Gillian was at a National FFA convention in Indianapolis on Nov. 15, 2023.
Her then-friend (now-boyfriend) Preston Sorenson was also there. In the days after the convention, Preston, who was 15, received copies of text conversations made to look like they were between Gillian and another student. The contact labelled as “Gillian” wrote cruel things about Preston and others in that conversation, according to an events timeline Cathy Holman posted to her mommy-blog, Prairie Wife In Heels.
“There’d be like screenshots of text messages supposedly from me, talking bad about other kids – saying stuff that could get me in trouble with the school,” Gillian recalled in her Friday interview.
Most of the people who saw the screeds supposedly written by Gillian didn’t buy it.
One friend did and confronted her in anger, she said.
Gillian handed him her phone to prove that she hadn’t sent those texts. Then her friend believed her.
Gillian’s dad, Dan Holman, also confronted her.
“I pressed my daughter for the truth. I pressured my daughter to confess. I accused my daughter of lying,” Dan wrote in his own narrative on his wife’s blog. “Gillian never backed up… She stood firm and denied the accusations.”
For Gillian to have sent such texts seemed out of character to Dan, he noted. He chose to take her at her word and believe in her innocence.
Meanwhile, the teens started speculating about who could have built the fake text conversation. They blamed another student at school, the daughter of Marcie Smith.
Smith got involved and told the kids to apologize to her daughter, Gillian recalled.
Here there was a small-town connection: Preston Sorensen had dated Smith’s daughter at the end of their freshman year, but the pair called it off just before the homecoming dance, sophomore year.
Smith at that time had badgered Preston about reuniting with her daughter. She texted him repeatedly, orchestrated gift exchanges between the two and encouraged Preston to send the girl “an underwear flexing selfie,” screenshots show.
By Nov. 21, 2023, Cathy Holman and Preston’s mom, Brandi Sorensen, reported the contrived “Gillian” texts to the Glenrock Police Department.
Officer Rachel Brurud opened a case, the timeline says.
The issue died down as the texts stopped for a few weeks.
‘Concerned Parent’
On Feb. 7, 2024, Cathy and Dan Holman received a text message from an unknown person claiming to be a “concerned parent.” The “concerned parent” said her son’s phone content application had notified her of an inappropriate conversation in which Gillian was describing doing sexual things, the timeline says.
“The text went on to say how the young men at school had a betting pool going to see who could have sex with my daughter first, to take her virginity,” wrote Dan.
Crushed and concerned, Dan confronted his daughter.
“This was the hardest discussion I have ever had to have with my daughter,” Dan wrote. “I had to sit down with my girl, face to face, and ask her if these were true.”
He didn’t believe these things about his daughter. But he had to ask the questions in case the girl had derailed drastically and needed help and intervention, Cathy explained in her interview.
“Watching my daughter weep over this was heartbreaking,” Dan wrote.
Gillian was also crushed. She was terrified that her parents would believe the words of the text, and that she’d lose both their faith in her and the privilege of wrestling, she told Cowboy State Daily.
It took the family a couple days to sort it all out. The parents searched their daughter’s bank account for any sign she’d bought a burner phone and took other pains to confirm her innocence.
The Holmans reported the text to the police on Feb. 9, 2024.
Gillian’s distress didn’t end after she proved her innocence to her parents. She spent many nights fighting to rationalize what was happening to her: she couldn’t understand who would do this to her or why, says Dan’s account.
‘Bully’
Three days later, a Glenrock High School girl received a text from an unknown person saying Gillian wanted to beat her up, the timeline continues. Cathy reported it to police.
Someone texted Brandi Sorensen on Feb. 18, 2024, claiming Gillian and Preston had been inappropriate together. The texter cast Gillian as a bully and a bad influence, says the timeline.
But life didn’t stop. Gillian had regional wrestling that month. She fretted even while she was on the mat and didn’t let her guard down, she recalled.
The strange and menacing texts didn’t stop either. Supposed peers, unknown numbers and strange emails reached Gillian and Preston both, stirring up drama and suspicions between the two teens who, by then, hoped to date each other.
On April 10, 2024, an FFA adviser and Glenrock High School staffer received an email from a Gmail account, the timeline says. Claiming to be a fellow school staffer, the writer said Gillian was planning to sneak into Preston’s room during the state FFA convention that week.
The staffer assumed the email was a prank and deleted it. Later, says the timeline, he reported it to the Holman family.
‘Super Hot In That Skirt’
Gillian had been receiving strange and sexualized messages about how she looked in certain online photos, such as in her wrestling singlet. But on April 10, 2024, a figure behind an anonymous Instagram account messaged Gillian about what she was wearing that day, she recalled.
She was still at the spring state FFA convention.
Marcie Smith was also present as a chaperone, Gillian recalled.
“Your ass is super hot in that skirt,” wrote the Instagram user. “Id tap that ass.”
For Gillian, it was a shock. She hadn’t posted photos of herself in the skirt or told anyone about the skirt she was wearing that day, she said.
“That’s when I started to actually get scared, because (the texter was) right there; like staying in the same hotel as me,” Gillian said. “I still didn’t know who it was.”
She said she was on edge the rest of that semester and wouldn’t go anywhere alone.
On overnight activities trips she knew she had to get her spring track workout in at the hotel gym – and she’d beg other girls to work out with her, Gillian said.
Because the anonymous texts to her were “super sexual in nature,” she kept looking over her shoulder for a male who was waiting for the chance to get her alone.
Preston kept receiving anonymous texts as well: from someone who called Gillian a “hoe” and “fkn disgusting” the timeline says.
That’s Not Gen Z
On April 20, 2024, Cathy Holman received an email from the same account that had earlier posed as a high school staffer.
“So you talk about leading a life of grit and grace and the same for your kids but let me tell you,” the email began, according to a screenshot of it.
The “grit and grace” reference was of Cathy Holman’s mommy blog’s overarching message.
“Your daughter… shouldn’t be a snatch and she would get voted,” the email continued. “Preston and her are bad news together. Quit putting on this fake image.”
When Cathy and Gillian discussed the email, Gillian didn’t know what the derogatory term “snatch” meant. Her mother had to explain it to her.
“How do you explain to a 16-year-old girl what a snatch is?” Cathy told Cowboy State Daily. “That was awkward.”
For Cathy, the vulgar term brought a beam of light. She’d spent months believing some capricious kid was stirring up trouble for her daughter.
But “snatch” is a term Generation Z doesn’t typically use that way – so Cathy’s focus shifted. The phantom texter was an adult, she realized.
Over the coming weeks she’d come to suspect Smith.
Meanwhile, Cathy pressed on, doing what a small-town mom does: she reached out to the teacher whose identity the email writer had assumed.
The teacher was mortified that someone had sent that message under her name, and she notified the police, Cathy recalled.
Prom Night
April 20, 2024, was also prom night. A writer claiming to be “a concerned man” from the Sorensens’ church texted Brandi that Gillian and Preston were misbehaving at the dance, says the timeline.
That was also the day Officer Brurud received a search warrant to investigate the Gmail account.
But the investigation took time.
Gillian and Preston became an official couple May 6, 2024.
Weird texts haunted the early weeks of their relationship. Some claimed the teens were being unfaithful to one another; others sent to their parents accused Preston of being friends with a porn site on Facebook, the timeline says.
‘Wouldn’t You?’
In mid-July, Preston and Gillian both blocked Marcie Smith from accessing their social media accounts.
That same day, Marcie Smith sent Cathy a screenshot of a conversation between herself and an unknown number – supposedly Gillian’s – in which the texter railed “Keep mine and Prestons (sic) name out of your mouth!! We both deleted you on Facebook and Instagram!! So keep your mouth shut.”
Though Gillian had in fact blocked Marcie Smith that day, Cathy didn’t believe the abusive text was from her daughter. She encouraged Smith to report the messages to the police.
“Add that to the file!” wrote Cathy to Smith at the time, according to a screenshot on her blog.
“What the heck did I ever do to deserve this shit,” Smith wrote back.
Cathy Holman gathered a couple witnesses, then called Smith.
“I’m done,” Cathy remembered saying in that phone call. “Look, Gillian and I are not doing this. We’ve received dozens of texts ourselves.”
Smith fired back. She claimed Gillian had been bullying her daughter and added: “I don’t know why you hate me so much,” Cathy recalled.
Cathy Holman gathered herself and deployed what she calls her kindergarten teacher voice. If Gillian were bullying Smith’s daughter, she said, then they should all meet with Glenrock High School administrators, the athletic director or a mediator and solve the issue.
“If your daughter really was being bullied, wouldn’t you jump at that chance?” Cathy told Cowboy State Daily.
But Smith just said, “It’s not going to change anything. Why the f*** are you going to bring the athletic director into it?” Cathy related.
Smith threatened twice to kill herself during that phone call, said Cathy.
Cathy called the police to perform a wellness check on Smith.
‘Who Hates Me This Much?’
The drama between people in Smith’s corner and people in the Holmans’ corner erupted at the local fair that week.
Gillian’s best friend witnessed the outburst and stood up for her friend, Cathy said, clarifying that accounts of the outbursts that happened at the fair have only reached her secondhand.
Gillian’s best friend also texted the teen an account of everything that had happened at the fair.
But Gillian was 700 miles away – at the nation’s biggest youth wrestling tournament in Fargo, North Dakota. She was already on edge, eager to perform well and win the notice of college scouts.
When she found she was still being impersonated, and that the ugly claims about her had now erupted at the local fair, she cried until she couldn’t breathe.
Then she called her mom.
“I will never forget sitting and listening to her cry and ask me, ‘Mom, who hates me this much? What have I done?’” Cathy said. “She’s all the way in North Dakota, in what is supposed to be one of the biggest moments of her life – and I can’t fix it. I will never forget that feeling of hopeless rage. Ever.”
Nauseous, Gillian did not perform well on the mat.
Get A Warrant
The messages stopped after that.
Google returned Brurud’s search warrant for the mystery Gmail account in early August. It linked to a cellphone device, for which police also obtained a warrant.
Gillian started her junior year at Glenrock High. Her parents explained the situation to administrators on Aug. 5, and said they were concerned for their daughter’s safety. They offered to meet with administrators and the parents of children Smith had accused Gillian of bullying.
No kid is perfect, Cathy explained to Cowboy State Daily. And if Gillian were bullying other students, they wanted to address the problem, she added.
Dan Holman called those other parents to set up the meeting, but they said Gillian had not been bullying them, the timeline says.
By Sept. 25, Brurud had tracked down details about the mystery phone: It was activated March 31, 2024 at the local Walmart.
Walmart’s surveillance video showed Smith buying the phone with cash and activating it, the timeline says.
Brurud interviewed Smith five days later, and Smith confessed, saying she’d bought the phone to send anonymous messages. She claimed she did so because Gillian had been bullying her daughter, the timeline says.
The Holmans received a protection order against Smith. So did the Sorensens,
Converse County Deputy Attorney Nathan Shumway agreed to take on their case and charged Smith with misdemeanor stalking Oct. 1.
On March 19, 2025, after receiving a plea agreement, Smith pleaded no-contest to both counts of stalking. She received two years’ unsupervised probation, with requirements that she stay away from the Sorensens and Holmans, get mental health help and avoid alcohol and drugs.
If Smith doesn’t comply with the terms of her probation, she could face jail time.
The Holmans and Sorensens delivered emotional statements at Smith’s sentencing hearing.
For Cathy, one of the toughest challenges had been staying quiet about Smith’s actions during the criminal case, to preserve the prosecution.
“On the 19th, in court, was the first time any of us… were able without fear of retribution to speak out loud the truth of what was done to our family for a year and a half,” said Cathy. “I’ve watched, the last 48 hours, Gillian and Preston take their power back.”
Fighting back tears, Cathy added: “I’ve seen a light in my daughter I did not realize I missed.”
But Gillian is still on the cynical side – especially for a nearly-17-year-old girl from small-town Wyoming.
“Be careful and never assume you really know somebody, because the second you do, they’re going to turn around and do something not good,” Gillian told Cowboy State Daily.
When Cathy heard her daughter’s comment in their shared interview, she fought back fresh tears.
“How heartbreaking is that to hear, from a 16-year-old kid?” said Cathy.
Still, said Cathy, the family has some consolation in the saga, that it unfolded in a small town with lots of involved parents and teachers, and people took their confusion to one another – for the most part – instead of blasting it across social media.
Gillian overcame the heartbreak of the past year and a half through the support of her family, and through “a lot of willpower and prayer,” she said.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
