I first met Prairie Wife in Heels, the mommy blogger, when she was 8 months pregnant with baby number five.
Cathy Holman had been begging her heavy-equipment-salesman husband Dan to get the outside Christmas lights up at their tiny homestead on Highway 20/26 between Glenrock and Casper.
To appease his nesting hormonal wife, Dan took three huge round bales of hay, set them pyramid style between the house and the highway, and wrapped Christmas lights around the pile.
In the late-afternoon December darkness, those lights were a beautiful beacon for us weary commuters.
I wrote about them and Cathy took the time to respond. Our 10-year friendship was born then.
I have had a behind the scenes and sometimes very confidential view of the disgusting, despicable actions preyed upon her oldest daughter, Gillian, and another Glenrock teen, Preston Sorensen, for more than a full year.
For reasons never divulged (though if you watch Lifetime movies you might have a clue), a 41-year-old wife and mother, herself raised in Glenrock, decided to start stalking first Preston and then Gillian with suggestive, sexually harassing texts.
This lasted more than one full year.
Especially to Gillian, the messages would appear at hugely important times for the active teen - big wrestling matches, the state FFA convention and even prom.
She had no idea who might be sending them because the sender was then unknown.
Preston, who had previously “dated” the woman’s daughter - if ninth graders really date - received similar but in some cases more sexually explicit messages, one requesting photos of him in underwear.
The woman is what you would call connected. Her father holds a highly respected position in the community, her sibling is an employee of the school district and her brother-in-law is a Casper police officer.
She even went so far as to create a fake account and send a text to Gillian’s parents, pretending to be a teacher and warning of Gillian’s supposed promiscuous behavior at school.
The case broke open finally in October 2024 when investigators found the woman on security footage purchasing a burner phone at a Casper big box store.
She confessed to Glenrock police while showing no remorse.
In October, Gillian’s and Preston’s families secured three-year restraining orders, barring the stalker from any place, including schools, while the two families were present.
In February, just weeks before her sentencing hearing in Converse County Circuit Court, her family thought it would be cute to carry a Fat Head-sized enormous poster with the woman's photo to cheer on her niece at the state wrestling tournament. Trouble is, they were seated exactly at the mat where Gillian was wrestling.
Cathy called that “maybe the most disturbing of all to our family.”
People who insist there are two sides to every story get six this time. I implore you to read all six Victim Impact Statements delivered aloud last week at the sentencing hearing. Actual screenshots of the text evidence are embedded within. There is no arguing with the evidence.
They can all be found at prairiewifeinheels.com.
The woman received probation because of a plea deal. Judge Clark C. Allan was limited by Wyoming’s weak-ass laws.
He said to her, “What I have heard here today is just evil.”
The two families vow to get Wyoming’s stalking laws changed, so that no other families have to go through hell and live with a slap on the wrist.
They simply want adults who stalk minors who are more than three years younger to be charged with felony stalking, punishable up to 10 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
They have been invited to the Wyoming Legislature Management Council meeting on April 8 to get the ball rolling.
Folks were outraged that the woman got probation.
Letters to legislators were encouraged. While they usually don’t love 100 form letters that sound just alike, I know that non-writers panic at the thought of writing one.
I always believe that short and to the point is best. If you are going to send one, please do it prior to April 7.
Here is a suggestion you might want to try:
“Good morning, Senator (or Representative),
By now, I hope your email is blowing up over the Glenrock school situation, in which a 41-year-old mother systematically sexually harassed, groomed and stalked two teenagers, Gillian Holman and Preston Sorensen.
What she did is reprehensible, filthy and disgusting and her “punishment” for her misdemeanor crimes that lasted well over a year is probation.
This is not the Wyoming that I know and love.
Please fix these laws so no child or parent ever has to go through this again, look at the perpetrator in a courtroom and know that justice will not be served.
Thank you for your time.
(Name)
(Town)
(Phone number)”
Small towns can be awesome. Last week, while recovering from major surgery, a woman I barely know brought us home cooked dinner five nights in a row.
Sometimes, it just takes a little work on our part to get the awesome back.
