It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Monday, March 31st. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show! From 6 to 10 a.m., Monday through Friday, we bring you news, weather, sports AND in-depth interviews with news-makers from across Wyoming - and this week we’ve got a fantastic guest host, Charene Herrera, who will keep the conversation lively! Just click on the Cowboy State Daily homepage to join in.
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A new TV series on Paramount+ will feature the story of Keith Jesperson, who admitted to murdering at least eight women across five states — including Wyoming — between 1990 and 1995.
Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher spoke with one of the detectives who interviewed the serial killer in 1996, about how he murdered 21-year-old Angela Subrize at a truck stop outside of Cheyenne.
“Bruce Dexter, who is the former Laramie County Sheriff's detective who, along with John Harrison, was sent to interview Jesperson in Washington… and he sat down face to face with Him, and just was appalled by how proud he was of the crimes. And when they asked him, did you do this? He said, Yeah, and this is why. And his story is they were they had stopped. He picked up a young lady, a 21 year old woman in Spokane. And drove her to right outside a truck stop, right outside Cheyenne. And she wanted to keep going, and he wanted to sleep. And she was in a hurry, and he was going to drop her off at her, her dad's house in Fort Collins, and she was in a hurry to keep going. And he said, I just need to sleep. And she kept talking. So he said, I just killed her. I put my fist in her throat. And you know, these detectives were just astounded by how glib he was and unrepentant, just zero remorse.”
Over the years, Jesperson has shared his story in books and news articles as has his daughter, Melissa Moore, who has spent decades of her life attempting to rectify the truth about her father’s crimes that she’d learned about as a teen.
Read the full story HERE.
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Thermopolis resident Jessica Lippincott had a life-changing experience as a result of the 23andMe DNA test she took to explore her family’s medical history, not only learning who her biological father was, but also discovering she had 49 half-siblings
But like other 23andMe customers, she has been doing a little soul-searching after learning the company has gone bankrupt and plans to auction the company — and the genetic data it collected — to the highest bidder.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean spoke to Lippincott and others who must decide to delete their personal data, or allow it to roll over to whoever purchases the company.
“She did kind of a deep dive. She says she has a science brain. So she went in the science brain mode, and she started looking at, you know, what are the laws? What can these companies do with my data? And she decided at the end of that that she really wasn't that concerned about her data being with a new company. The new company still has to follow all the applicable laws that already govern such data… Hannah Snitko, she's here in Cheyenne, and her fiance did this during the pandemic… they kind of had opposite reactions. His reaction when he heard it was just immediately go delete the data… She decided that she would delete her data too, but found that she couldn't, because the sites were far too busy. So as of Friday, her data was still on the database.”
The bankruptcy court judge hearing 23andMe’s case in the Eastern District of Missouri has already signed off on attempts to find a buyer for the company. Bids are due by May 7, after which there will be a hearing to examine the potential sale sometime in June.
Read the full story HERE.
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Riggin Schaffer loved classic American muscle cars and dinosaurs growing up in Powder River County, Montana, and moved to Laramie to learn automobile collision repair, painting and upholstery at WyoTech.
But last Sunday, Schaffer stopped on Highway 130 between Laramie and Centennial assisting the injured driver of a single-car accident, when another driver crashed into the scene, killing Schaffer. Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the 18-year-old was beloved and respected by his family and friends.
“It occurred on Wyoming Highway 130 between Laramie and Centennial, perhaps between Centennial and the ski area where Riggin worked, snowy mountain ski area. He was a snowboarder. His parents said through an obituary that he was up there so often they finally just gave him a job, a man with a zest for life. Grew up the ranching lifestyle in broadest Montana and was studying to be a collision repair specialist. ...I think it strikes a lot of us as extra tragic in that here's a young man who's really coming into his own, who left a little town in eastern he left a little town in eastern Montana, found a new community and a career path in Laramie, and was apparently just trying to do the right thing when tragedy struck.”
The Wyoming Highway Patrol confirmed that there was a fatal traffic incident on March 23 in Laramie, but did not have any other details by the time this story was published. That includes whether there are any charges pending in the fatal crash.
Read the full story HERE.
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Even in a state as gun friendly as Wyoming, the legal boundaries for opening fire on a crook are strict, and it’s best to know the law before reaching for a firearm, some experts told Cowboy State Daily.
In light of that, a Casper man who reportedly emptied his handgun at his own pickup after another man stole it and was fleeing in the vehicle might have violated Wyoming’s statutes regarding the use of potentially lethal force. That’s what Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz found out after talking to gun experts in Wyoming.
“If you want to use a firearm for self defense in Wyoming, which is, you know, that's an option that some people choose, really, you have to be able to clearly demonstrate that there was an imminent threat of grave bodily harm or death... Otherwise, it's probably the best idea to keep the gun holstered, keep the firearm out of it, because, you know, even if somebody's doing something bad, if you jump the gun, no pun intended, you could end up being the one going to jail over it… Because there are, you know, even in a gun friendly state like Wyoming, there are restrictions that dictate when you're justified in bringing that force to bear.”
Self-defense or use-of-force cases are dependent upon the details of each individual case. Much of it hinges upon what a “reasonable person” would have done in the same situation.
Read the full story HERE.
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After eating his five traveling companions in the Colorado mountains in the winter of 1874, Alfred Packer eluded capture for nearly a decade.
One of the most infamous cannibals in U.S. history, Packer was caught and brought to justice by Albany County Deputy Sheriff Malcolm Campbell in 1883. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy researched the infamous murders - and what she found made her just a bit squeamish.
“I was actually sympathetic to this guy, Alfred Packer, for eating his companions, until I really dug into the story. Pun intended. I was reading about what he did, and it really sounds like he murdered five of his companions and slowly ate their flesh over six weeks. And when he emerged from the wilderness, instead of being starving, they said his face was bloated. So I'll let you be the judge, read the story and let me know what you think.”
Packer was paroled in 1901, and in 1907, at the age of 65, he died from a stroke. He is rumored to have become a vegetarian before his death.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming ranchers are asking for President Donald Trump’s help in settling a dispute between the U.S. Forest Service and their daughter and son-in-law on the younger couple’s South Dakota Ranch.
Heather and Charles Maude, have their own ranch near Caputa, South Dakota. The Forest Service has accused the Maudes of theft of government property because of a property dispute over a 75-year-old fence line - and Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that last summer, a Forest Service agent showed up at the Maudes’ home in full tactical gear to serve them indictments.
“Heather is a Wyoming native. She actually is from Niobrara County. Her parents have have reached out to or at least publicly put out the call that they'd like President Trump to somehow intervene and help them with this case that their daughter and son in law are facing. To our knowledge, hasn't been any response yet from the Trump administration. And I did reach out to the mods, the daughter and son in law who own the ranch in South Dakota, and they said, you know, they told me this a couple times before, they can't really talk, because it's an ongoing case, and they're still under federal indictments.”
The Maudes’ case has sparked nationwide outrage over what many perceive as a heavy-handed overreaction by the federal government.
Read the full story HERE.
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After standing up to Wyoming wind and weather for 152 years, mountain man Jim Baker’s cabin at the Little Snake River Museum in Savery, Wyoming, could use more than just a little TLC. Several of its old cottonwood logs have succumbed to rot and the ravages of time.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that the tiny community is determined to save this piece of history belonging to one of the west’s most courageous characters.
“I did that story in the legendary battle mountain, where he fought off, you know, hundreds of Indians. It was like Thermopylae, like odds, 700 warriors versus like a dozen scouts at the time… He survived not just one bear encounter, but a couple that I know of, and maybe even more, he wasn't a man given to talking about himself… He was Savery, Wyoming's first retiree, right? And he built this unique two story cabin, actually, at the time, had three stories because he put a big watch tower on the top of it. This thing was a little miniature fort on the plains, like a castle on the prairie… It was displayed at Frontier Cheyenne frontier park for 60 years, and eventually it was dismantled and left in storage, just kind of benign neglect, I guess you could say oblivion and neglect and then Savery eventually was successful in bringing it back home.”
The nationally recognized preservation group, HistoriCorps, will be bringing an expert team of volunteers to Wyoming this summer to work on saving the cabin.
Read the full story HERE.
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Everyone dies, and nobody has a choice in the matter. After death, on the other hand, there are plenty of choices for those left behind — and most of them cost money.
From playful parlor services to high mountain memorials and backyard burials, Wyomingites are known to personalize their final dispositions. State funeral directors told Cowboy State Daily’s Zak Sonntag that they are eager to accommodate any and every custom.
“One director I spoke with, I love this phrase. He said, As long as it's not illegal, unethical or immoral, we can probably make that happen… The average cost that somebody's paying is about $10,000 but that can go up or down because there's so many variables. The casket is a huge variable. On the high end… Those things run as much as $14,000 so pretty pricey. And then on the other end of the casket equation. You're dealing with things that are just simple as single ply fiber board with a cloth, and they'll just give those things away for free… because of the expenses, a lot of people have been moving towards cremation… the average cremation is going to cost you about $3,000 and some change, that's just the cremation and nothing else… But below cremation too, also interesting is, and a lot of people don't know this, but you have the option of doing a direct burial yourself. You don't have to go through a funeral parlor. And this is a good option for people, largely because it's affordable.”
The range of options also means a range of price points, which can run from the cost of a shovel up to tens of thousands of dollars. Or it could be nothing if you already have a shovel or borrow one.
Read the full story HERE.
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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for tuning in - I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
