Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"Looking forward to The Masters......"}]

Darwin 4 4 25

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Daily Darwin: Friday, April 4, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Looking forward to The Masters......

Daily Darwin: Friday, April 4, 2025

[{"type":"text","text":"The day Billy Bob became the lead soprano in the church choir…"}]

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<title>Daily Darwin: Friday, June 5, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The day Billy Bob became the lead soprano in the church choir…

Daily Darwin: Friday, June 5, 2026

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Energy

Green

CHEYENNE — Protests and rallies are something f

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"In fact, Thursday marked a first for him."}]

Stephens, whose family has what he describes as a “modest” cow-calf operation south of Glenrock that’s been there since 1910, said he’s spent most of his life avoiding microphones and politics. 

But as wind projects have encircled his part of the county, he felt he could no longer afford not to get involved.

“We’ve got surrounded by wind farms,” he told a crowd gathered Thursday at the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne to call for more study of a wind wall that’s sprung up across a 200-mile swath of southeast Wyoming. 

“If you look at Converse County right now, between the farms that are there and the ones that are proposed, it’s 200,000 acres,” he said. "That’s a lot. And then this 

 showed up. Half of it’s going to be on state land. That was enough for me.”

When he started talking to neighbors, Stephens learned how widespread wind farms had become. That made him feel uneasy. 

So, he decided to come and be part of what was his first-ever rally, even though it meant his family’s ranch would be short-handed that day. 

“I have talked to ranchers all around,” he said. “I’ve talked to 68 ranchers, and there’s 50-some against it, three who won’t say, and six who are for it,” he said. “And this is the ranchers all the way around me. And they don’t have to save the ranch. They’ll go to work and do whatever they need to do to make it.”

At a State Board of Land Commissioners meeting in Douglas that Stephens helped arrange, he saw 200-some people in the crowd, with another 100 or so on Zoom, all against more wind in Wyoming. 

More Than 3,500 Signatures On Petition So Far

For the rally on Thursday, Stephens brought his daughter-in-law Kelsey and two grandchildren, Emory and Acelynn, to Cheyenne. 

“My husband and I built our home with our own two hands alongside family and friends,” Kelsey told the crowd. “We chose this place intentionally for the land, the view, and the life it allows us to live. 

"Picture a summer evening on our front porch — crickets and frogs singing, the smell of freshly cut hay in the air, and the red hills glowing as the sun sets. That’s a view that will take your breath away.”

And it’s exactly where a new wind farm plans to locate.

A petition the family has helped circulate has so far gathered 1,778 signatures from Converse County residents alone, Emory told the crowd, with another 500 from Douglas and another 1,241 coming from Glenrock and nearby areas. That’s more than 3,500 signatures so far.

About 98% of those are from Wyoming residents, Emory added. 

“Based on the most recent available data, Converse County generates approximately 43% of Wyoming wind power and electricity, but only receives 12% of the wind generation tax revenue,” she said. “That’s a small fraction of the benefits compared to what it produces for many residents.”

For her, the point of the rally in Cheyenne was all about making sure Wyoming people, including ranchers, have a say in the decisions that are affecting them.

On a map taped to her kitchen table, Cheyenne Realtor and Dereemer Ranch family member Wendy Volk has plotted an informal picture of what Wyoming’s wind tower surge looks like on the land. 

She started the map a little more than a year ago after receiving a letter notifying her that one or more neighbors planned to rezone their land from agricultural to industrial. The map she received with the notice was all but incomprehensible.

There was a dot for Cheyenne in the right-hand corner of the page and another dot in the lefthand corner for Laramie. Chugwater floated near the top of the page.

“Smack dab in the middle of that was this postage-size stamp, depicting this project,” she said. “And I’m a real estate agent, but I couldn’t make heads or tail of that map.”

A different page offered an enlargement of the postage stamp, a 56,000-acre tract dotted with 189 wind turbines, crisscrossed with access roads and transmission lines, as well as symbols for substations. 

But it was still impossible to tell where her family’s property was in relation to all of that.

She reached out to the company for a better map, and that wasn’t as straightforward as she had expected.

“I kept being very tenacious, asking questions, and then the gentleman said I have to go through legal,” she said. “He eventually sent me a better map, which he thought didn’t show that we were even touching.”

With the improved map, though, Volk finally verified that the project was about 1,000 feet off of her property line, as well as some of her neighbors. That’s when she started looking for a bigger picture. 

She hadn’t set out to become an expert on Wyoming’s industrial siting laws or federal permits. She just wanted to see a master map of all the projects to understand their overall footprint on the land. 

She’d noticed, now that her own property was directly affected, that there were an awful lot of wind projects popping up all over the place. She figured someone, somewhere would already have created such a map at the state level.

Nope. And further, there had been no state-level look at the cumulative effects of all these many wind projects.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"So she decided to make her own."}]

“I started putting pink sticky notes on a Wyoming map anytime someone mentioned a wind or solar project,” she said. “All of a sudden, the sticky notes were like connecting dots. And that’s when I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is an entire wall of wind projects that will stretch easily from Casper to Cheyenne and from Cheyenne to Rawlins. It’s just going to fill in and create a triangle.'”

It will be a massive “wind wall” that industrializes well over 200 miles of southeastern Wyoming rangeland and migration corridors, she said.

In Volk’s mind, the problem with that isn’t just any one wind farm in particular. It’s that no one at the state level is looking at the whole picture. 

Across southeast Wyoming, ranchers like Volk and her family rarely show up at hearings in their own communities, much less drive hours to Cheyenne to attend Industrial Siting Council meetings or stand on the Capitol steps for something like a rally.

Making time to be in Cheyenne means leaving their families shorthanded for tasks involving animals and fields. 

But Thursday, Stephens and Volk were there with other ranching families to help make a statement about what they feel is unprecedented and unconstrained growth of wind towers in Wyoming.

“These are not protest kind of people,” fourth-generation Wyomingite and Albany County Conservancy founder Anne Brande told Cowboy State Daily. “But they are calling me from Niobrara County, from Chugwater, from Wheatland, from Casper, from Goshen. 

"People are just tired of these (wind turbines) in these rural communities. They want to have a state conversation about it.”

Brande’s group isn’t asking to stop every wind turbine, but they want tougher siting scrutiny, as well as a cumulative impact review that looks at how so many wind turbines showing up all at once will affect wildlife, migration corridors, viewsheds, agricultural land, and rural communities across Wyoming. 

Wind turbines have already killed a number of golden eagles, Brande said. 

“We’ve been trying to place a golden eagle nest cam,” she said. “We think that’d be a fun project, but we’re having a hard time locating a viable nest, a viable golden eagle nest, and that’s a very different narrative than what we had even two, three years ago.”

Federal policy analyst David Wojick has spent the past two years digging into what wind development is doing to golden eagles across the American West.

He says the Eagle Protection Act is misnamed and is actually a license to kill a certain number of golden eagles every time a project gets a permit. That’s because each permit allows a certain amount of eagle “take” or deaths.

“There’s supposedly a program whereby every eagle that’s killed by a wind turbine, 1.2 golden eagles are saved from electrocution, because the wind people pay to have power poles somewhere in the country fixed,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s all false, by the way. And that’s the thing that I’m the most focused on.”

Wojick has been involved in broad environmental impact assessments of offshore wind in Wales for the last six or so years, and said that’s what he believes Wyoming needs to do about its wind wall.

“We’ve got this huge number of projects, some of which are built, some of which are under construction, and a whole bunch of which have been applied for in various processes,” he said. “And they’re being treated individually. The cumulative effect is obvious, and could be devastating.”

Wojick sees an “ecological death trap” phenomenon with such a widespread swath of land being taken up by wind towers. 

“Somebody’s got to be looking at that,” he said. “The feds should be looking at it. I don’t know if there’s some provision in Wyoming wildlife law for this, but if there isn’t, then the governor should just like convene a task force or committee to look at this.”

Wojick has seen studies showing the number of golden eagles killed by wind turbines has doubled in the Rocky Mountain West. 

He’s also heard ornithologist and bird biologist Bryan Bedrosian’s say that Wyoming’s golden eagle population has dropped by 30% over the last 20 years. Bedrosian is founder of Sporting Lead-Free, as well as conservation director at Teton Raptors Center.

“When you’ve got around 1,500 turbines at this point and with another 1,500 coming, I mean you could wipe (golden eagles) out, quite literally,” Wojick said. “You need to have a moratorium until somebody decides how many eagles you’re prepared to kill.”

What’s The Legacy For Future Generations?

For ranchers like Stephens and Volk, the wind wall isn’t theoretical. It’s either become the view from their front porches, or will be soon.

They’re not asking to turn back the clock on every wind turbine in the state. They just want a thoughtful look at the big picture, instead of a piecemeal approach.

“Governor Gordon’s recent executive order just yesterday regarding data center development recognizes many of these same concerns,” Volk said. “It acknowledges the importance of stewardship, water resources, wildlife, local communities and the entire region. 

"If Wyoming recognizes the need to evaluate cumulative impacts associated with large-scale data center development, then we should be willing to examine the cumulative impacts of industrial corridors forming across southeastern Wyoming.”

The rally, she added, is not about protesting energy development. 

“It’s about making sure Wyoming residents have a voice and the cumulative effects of these projects are honestly evaluated before our landscapes are permanently changed,” she said. “Today, I respectfully ask our city council members, our county commissioners, our state legislators, our state agencies, governing boards to consider the bigger picture, because southeastern Wyoming is not an empty space on a map. 

"It is ranch land, it is wildlife habitat, it is open space, and it is our heritage.”

Wyoming has a responsibility, she added. to be good stewards of that land, and to consider carefully the legacy that will be left to future generations, a legacy she’s sketched out in pink sticky notes that paint what she feels will be a disquieting story.

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<title>Wyoming Ranchers Rally Against 'Wind Wall' Of Turbines Across The State | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming ranchers rallied at the state Capitol on Thursday demanding action against what they call a “wind wall” of turbines across the state. “We’ve got surrounded by wind farms,” said one rancher about wind power and its impact on Wyoming’s rural future.

Wyoming Ranchers Rally Against 'Wind Wall' Of Turbines Across The State

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

Crime & Courts

Law Enforcement

For more than 30 years, the body of an unidentified woman discovered in the remote desert along Interstate 80 in rural Nevada has kept her secrets hidden.

The woman, known colloquially as “Shafter Jane Doe,” had been beaten and shot in the chest and back.

Her nude body was posed on the ground, arms extended to either side in the shape of a cross with legs slightly parted.

Less than a week after her death on Nov. 16, 1993, a geologist who had pulled off at the remote Shafter exit off I-80 to stretch his legs discovered her body, according to news reports from the time.

Later investigation in 2010 revealed that the woman had spent seven months in Afton, Wyoming, which was determined through the isotope testing. 

For years, her donated headstone has read, “Who Am I?”

Now more than 32 years after the gruesome discovery, authorities finally have an answer.  

Her name is Marion Hertha Alexander, who was a German immigrant who moved to California with her family in 1972.

After a decades-long investigation, members of the Elko County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement partners told the Elko County Commissioners on Thursday afternoon that they identified her through the use of advanced DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy.

The decades-long investigation also revealed the woman was in Afton, Wyoming, for about seven months before she was murdered. 

Alexander left home around age 18, and her family told investigators that Alexander was a free spirit who liked to drift around.

Her family questioned where she had gone, but given her lifestyle, they did not report her missing to law enforcement.

Her living family members were notified of the identification in January of this year, Elko County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Douglas Fisher stated, and continue to be in touch with law enforcement.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Justice"}]

Her suspected murderer, however, will not see justice.

Authorities were closing in on Roger Lee Durkee of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who was identified through semen found on a vaginal swab that yielded a full DNA profile, authorities said.

The profile was run through the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) but did not result in a match, so the Elko County Sheriff’s Office contracted a private group to perform forensic genetic genealogy analysis in February 2022 that led to Durkee as a potential suspect.

Further investigation indicated that Durkee was likely the murderer, but as detectives began planning their trip to Wisconsin to make an arrest, they learned that Durkee had died on Nov. 13, 2025.

He died within 14 days of detectives learning Alexander’s identity.

Now, however, Alexander will be properly laid to rest.

The Elko Sheriff’s Office asked the commission — and were granted — money to buy a proper headstone to finally put her to rest.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Piecing Together Mystery"}]

Authorities worked for decades to identify Alexander through the use of several forensic tools.

Initially when she was discovered, Alexander’s face was beaten beyond recognition, so the FBI created a computer-generated image of her likeness to help local authorities attempt to identify her, according to a 1993 article by the Elko Daily Free Press.

Along with her image, authorities had little else to go on.

They were able to extract a partial print from her right thumb, which did not find a match in any federal databases.

The only other identifying characteristics were what appeared to be a burn scar or birth mark on her right calf, pink fingernails that looked to be professionally done and a tooth that had undergone a partial root canal, according to the same article.

A portion of her skull was sent to the Minnesota State Crime Lab, according to reporting from the Casper-Star Tribune, where her DNA was extracted and run through databases with no match.

They turned to the media and a national crime show, but no viable leads to her identity were forthcoming.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Human Time Capsule"}]

A big break came nearly two decades later with the advancement of using stable isotopes that tracked Alexander to Afton, Wyoming.

This discovery came in 2010 when scientists at Utah State University were able to determine she had spent the past seven months in Afton by analyzing isotopes in her hair that traced her to the area.

Though not new science, this application of stable isotope analysis has transformed how law enforcement solves cold cases, said Christy Mancuso, an assistant research professor at the University of New Mexico and sales representative for Thermo Fisher Scientific.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Mancuso knows the science well."}]

She got her doctorate degree in biology from the University of Utah and was affiliated with the stable isotope lab, where her thesis advisor, Jim Ehleringer, started the now-shuttered IsoForensics lab.

She wasn’t familiar with Alexander’s case, but said that stable isotope analysis is an excellent tool for helping to identify remains.

Essentially, humans are like time capsules of chemical information that are stored within one’s bones, teeth and hair, Mancuso said, which helps trace that person to a generalized location.

Humans living in these various regions incorporate the stable isotope signal from their drinking water and food that correlate to particular regions.

When forensic scientists analyze human remains, they examine the various stable isotopes — carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen — that act as chemical signatures reflecting what a person consumed and where they lived during their lifetime, both recent and past.

Every geographical location has a unique chemical composition evident in its local water and food sources, soil composition and climate, Mancuso explained.

Researchers can then track these predictable geographical patterns using isotope maps called “isoscapes” to identify likely regions where that person lived or traveled.

Hair in particular, which was used to trace Alexander to the Afton area, serves as an excellent linear time recorder of isotope information because it grows at a predictable rate of about one centimeter per month and provides a chronological record in its keratin protein structure, Mancuso said.

In this case, isotopes in Alexander’s hair matched those in drinking water that suggested she’d lived in the that particular area of Wyoming for the past seven months.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Great Basin Murders"}]

Alexander is thought to be one of about nine victims killed between 1983 and 1997 across four states in the Great Basin geographical area that includes Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and Idaho, and dumped along interstates in the remote arid watershed.

Many had been sexually abused or assaulted and either strangled, shot or stabbed.

Some were posed like Alexander, including another Jane Doe found in rural Elko County in July 1972 who also had been shot twice with her body posed to resemble a cross.

Initially, it was thought that one serial killer might be responsible for all the deaths, but it was quickly determined that most the murders were committed by different people.

The first victim was thought to be 23-year-old Janelle Johnson, who was hitchhiking from Denver to Riverton in February 1983 and was last seen at a truck stop in Sinclair, Wyoming.

The aspiring model was found less than a month later in a shallow grave near Shoshoni, Wyoming, according to the national nonprofit Parents of Murdered Children.

 in March 1988, was also among the young women killed.

Her body was found floating in the North Platte River near Casper and it took until 2004 to bring her killer to justice.

Eaton had also been suspected in Alexander’s murder because he had reportedly lived in the Elko area at the time and had been arrested for domestic violence, according to a 2010 report by the Elko Daily Free Press.

One of the other Wyoming victims, who remained unidentified for years and was known as “Bitter Creek Betty,” was identified in 2025 as Irene Vasquez.

Both Vasquez, and Cindi Arleen Estrada, who had formerly been known as “I-90 Jane Doe,” 

were determined to be victims of Clark Perry Baldwin

Baldwin, a long-haul truck driver who was convicted of murdering a woman in 1991 in Tennessee, was 

Other victims affiliated with this geographic region and time period are Vicky Lynn Perkins, 19, who vanished from Oregon and whose body was found two months later off 1-70 in Emery County, Utah, in May 1989.

Two more victims were found within one month of each other in 1991.

The badly beaten deceased body of Ermalinda Garza Sherman was found in St. George, Utah, in April while a Jane Doe, later identified as Barbara Kaye Williams, was found in Salt Lake City in March.

Shafter Jane Doe inset 6 3 26

<title>32 Years After Her Posed Body Was Found Along I-80, ‘Shafter Jane Doe’ Identified | Cowboy State Daily</title>

More than 32 years after her body was found along I-80, the woman known as “Shafter Jane Doe” has been identified, officials announced Thursday. Her nude body was posed on the ground, arms extended to either side in the shape of a cross.

32 Years After Her Posed Body Was Found Along I-80, ‘Shafter Jane Doe’ Identified

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Cheyenne police are evaluating whether a man could face criminal charges for setting fire to a book, tossing it into the main branch of the Laramie County Library and pulling a fire alarm, forcing an evacuation of the building.

The man walked into the library at 2200 Pioneer Ave. Monday morning carrying his own copy of the young-adult novel “Paper Towns,” says the Cheyenne Police Department. 

A short time later, library staff were extinguishing a burning book, evacuating the building and waiting for first responders after the man allegedly dumped a milkshake on the floor, tossed the smoldering novel into the building and pulled a fire alarm. 

The incident remains under investigation, and the CPD says it is still evaluating whether criminal charges are appropriate.

According to police, the man left on foot before officers arrived, then later contacted police and said he wanted to turn himself in. He was subsequently transported to a hospital for a mental health evaluation.

[{"type":"text","text":"No injuries or property damage were reported."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Milkshake, Fire Alarm And A Burning Book"}]

Joelle Ashley, marketing and communications manager for the Laramie County Library System, said the man bought the milkshake from the library cafe before intentionally dumping it on the floor.

He then lit his personal copy of "Paper Towns" on fire and threw it into the library's entrance area, pulled an alarm, and left, Ashley said.

While police said the book did not continue burning once it landed inside, Ashley said library employees quickly extinguished it and began emergency procedures out of caution. The alarm prompted the library to clear out. 

"Safety is something we take very seriously at the Laramie County Library," said Ashley. "We are incredibly proud of our staff's response.

“They were very professional; they were very responsible. They immediately picked up the book, extinguished the fire, and then got everybody out of the building safely."

Staff and patrons remained outside until first responders determined it was safe to return.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Why ‘Paper Towns'"}]

One question that remains unanswered is why the man chose to burn particular book and if the act was some kind of a statement or just random vandalism.

Ashley confirmed the title was "Paper Towns," a young-adult novel that has appeared on lists of frequently challenged books compiled by the American Library Association.

However, she stressed that the library has no information about the man's motivation and is not drawing any conclusions from the choice of title.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I obviously cannot speculate on his motives at all,\" Ashley said."}]

The John Green young adult novel has been targeted for removal by school districts across the nation over its sexual themes and use of profanity.

[{"type":"text","text":"Police likewise report they have not identified a motive."}]

Instead, investigators say the incident may have been connected to a mental health crisis rather than criminal intent.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Charges Still Under Review"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The investigation remains active."}]

Police said surveillance footage and physical evidence were collected from the library following the incident. They have identified the man involved but have not publicly released his name.

Meanwhile, library officials say they are grateful the situation ended without injuries and proud of the staff members who responded when a routine Monday morning suddenly became anything but routine.

Ashley said she is unaware of a similar incident ever happening at the library.

Laramie County Library Cheyenne IMG 6436 6 3 26

<title>Man Sets Fire To Controversial Book In Cheyenne Library, Then Pulls Alarm | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Cheyenne police are evaluating whether a man could face charges for setting fire to a book, tossing it into the Laramie County Library and pulling a fire alarm. The book he burned, “Paper Towns,” has been targeted by some school districts for removal.

Man Sets Fire To Controversial Book In Cheyenne Library, Then Pulls Alarm

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

An elderly woman out for a walk in Alameda, California, was mobbed by a flock of urban wild turkeys, knocked down from behind, and left bleeding and needing stitches.

Mary Jo Kelly, 83, described the turkey attack as terrifying.

“I went headfirst, and I broke my glasses. I hit the palm of my hand and my thumb. I bled in the nose,” she told 

Kelly escaped the turkeys and called her husband, who took her to a local hospital. She suffered severe bruising and cuts to her right hand that required stitches.

The incident prompted local authorities to warn residents to be cautious around turkeys, particularly as toms (males) become aggressive during the spring mating season.

, should also give the birds a wide berth, says the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

“Casper has a well-documented, multi-year saga with urban wild turkeys,” Game and Fish Casper region spokeswoman Janet Milek stated in an email to Cowboy State Daily.

“While there haven't been reported severe attacks on humans in Casper, Casper urban wild turkeys have absolutely established a reputation for aggressive, bold, and disruptive behavior,” she added.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘They Just Took Over’"}]

Kim Fedore lives near the heart of downtown Casper and told Cowboy State Daily that she can recall when wild turkeys first started coming down off Casper Mountain and into town.

“It was such a novelty,” she said. "A long time ago, there were two turkeys that started living at 15th and Wolcott (Street). They had their own Facebook page and everybody loved them."

Wild turkeys recently attacked an elderly California woman, leaving her bruised and bloody. Casper's urban turkeys also "have absolutely established a reputation for aggressive, bold, and disruptive behavior,” says Game And Fish.

Daily Darwin: Friday, April 4, 2025

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