It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Tuesday, April 8th. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by Wyoming Community Gas. The Choice Gas selection period ends on Wednesday April 23rd – This is your opportunity to select your Natural Gas Provider for the coming year. For more information, visit Wyoming Community Gas dot ORG.”
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Speed and alcohol may have played a role in the two-crash incident that claimed the life of a good samaritan who stopped to help a disabled motorist on Highway 130 between Laramie and Centennial in southern Wyoming.
18-year-old Riggin Schaffer, a student at WyoTech in Laramie, had stopped to assist the driver of a Ford F-150 that was involved in a single-vehicle crash the evening of March 23rd. A second F-150 heading west toward Centennial T-boned into the crashed truck a little after 10:30 p.m., striking Schaffer and killing him at the scene.
Now Cowboy State Daily’s David Madison reports that the 18-year-old driver of the truck involved in the initial crash is being charged with Driving while Under the Influence - but the driver of the truck that killed Schaffer is facing no charges.
“the other 18 year old driver who was apparently traveling at a high rate of speed on Highway 130 lost control when he entered a bridge, pinballed off of both sides of the bridge, and then spun and stopped perpendicular to traffic… Riggan arrived at the scene. How and why he was there is still unclear. He gets out of his vehicle, goes to the driver's side of the … crashed f1 50, and is apparently trying to assist the driver. When another f1 50 coming westbound on a snowy night, Highway Patrol said visibility was terrible. There's no lighting on the roadway. And this driver, 49 year old from Centennial, basically T bones into the disabled f1 50 and Riggan is in the wrong place at the wrong time and loses his life.”
Nathan O’Leary of Sheridan was ticketed for DUI, open container, minor in possession of alcohol and failure to maintain a single lane of travel.
Read the full story HERE.
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One of Wyoming’s most beloved first ladies has died.
Sherri Geringer, wife of former Gov. Jim Geringer, died on Saturday at the age of 79. She was the Wyoming first lady from 1995-2003. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson spoke to several people who remembered Geringer as quiet and classy.
“Mary Kay Hill… was the campaign manager for Geringer’s 1994 campaign, and she said that Sherri Geringer was really just, was a classy lady who just really did things in a right way. She really spearheaded reading literacy and also finding trying to improve breast cancer awareness as well, trying to get more women to get mammograms in the 1990s which was a time that they were much more rare, rarely sought out than they are today. And she was just kind of a, kind of a quiet presence behind the Gehringer administration that was still very important and serving a role.”
Geringer is the first Wyoming first lady to die since Martha Hansen, the wife of former Gov. Cliff Hansen, died in 2011. She had been battling an extended illness for a number of years.
Read the full story HERE.
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Two weeks after a local teen was stabbed five times and suffered severe injuries, the Casper Police Department has issued an arrest warrant for the alleged assailant.
The CPD announced Monday that Casper Circuit Court Judge Kevin Taheri issued a warrant for Evan Kirkendall’s arrest Friday on a charge of aggravated assault. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that the March 21 stabbing sent a male teen to the hospital with damage to both lungs and his liver. But affidavits filed by police show that when they first interviewed Kirkendall, he claimed that the stabbing was done in self-defense.
“When the detective reviewed the video, he saw that the initial contact was that the person that they're seeking just stabbed the victim two times and then they broke through a door and wrestled outside of the house. So from what the affidavit is saying, there wasn't really any kind of self defense, and they're saying that the perpetrator also was calling the victim into the house to say, come on and come on in, like, like, just enticing Him to come into the house. And then when he did, he got stabbed.”
Aggravated assault and battery is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Read the full story HERE.
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It’s an unprecedented time to be involved in international business due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and Wyoming’s rare earth minerals industry is smack-dab in the middle of it all.
China placed export restrictions on the quantity of rare earth minerals that can be shipped out of the country last Friday as part of its sweeping response to Trump’s tariffs. Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson reports that if the restrictions last, it will cause a significant impact to Wyoming’s burgeoning rare earth minerals industry, which could be a positive - in the long run.
“They're looking at it from very cautiously optimistic perspective. I spoke to Melissa Sanderson, who is a… non executive director at American rare earths. American rare earths is currently working on a minerals project near Halleck Creek, outside Wheatland that the company has previously reported could be the richest rare earth deposit in the world, with an estimated 2.6 billion tons of rare earth minerals there, and even though they're not going to be starting mining till at least 2029. She said, If China holds tough on these restrictions… it could be a boon for American rare earth companies.”
The purpose of Trump’s trade war is to help bring jobs and economic opportunities back to America. The American rare earth minerals industry, however, is for the most part not commercially operational yet, leaving a major question mark as to what China’s restrictions will mean in the short term.
Read the full story HERE.
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For the second of two young Big Piney men accused of murdering their friend with a bow and arrow, the prosecutor has withdrawn the possibility of the death penalty.
Now neither 19-year-old Rowan Littauer nor 18-year-old Orion Schlesinger will face the death penalty.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that both could still face life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder and conspiring to commit first-degree murder, respectively, in the Feb. 2 death of 23-year-old Big Piney man Dakota Farley.
“Last month, Clayton Malinkovich, the Sublette county attorney, said for Orion Schlesinger, who was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, like, okay, we're not doing this, the jury probably wouldn't call for death and the public defenders offices in crisis across the state with the shortages. He reiterated the point on Monday with Rowan Littauer, who's actually accused of pulling the bow, of firing the arrow that killed Dakota Farley. He said we probably won't get in that call, because in Wyoming, it's the jury that has to make the call. It's 12 normal people from off the street that are asked, okay, you found him guilty, but do you want us to execute him? And when it really hits, when it really hits and it's time for them to make that call. It's, it's a little harder, you know?”
Schlesinger is accused alongside Littauer of conspiring to commit first-degree murder on claims that Schlesinger plotted the murder with Littauer. Schlesinger faces one felony theft charge as well, on evidence that he stole Farley’s gun.
Read the full story HERE.
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Between July 2023 and July 2024, the population of Washakie County fell by 1%, part of a longer-term drop-off since its 1980 peak at nearly 9500 residents.
Worland is the seat of Washakie County, one of 11 rural counties in the state whose numbers are in decline, according to recent U.S. Census data. Cowboy State Daily’s Zakary Sonntag reports that if the decline continues in Washakie and other counties, it could have spiraling impacts.
“with a daycare center in Lusk, where just as few as a few years ago, they had 10 employees, and they were able to provide for over 30 kids in two different age groups. Since then, they're down to two full time employees. They can only care for less than 10 kids, and by the end of the year, they plan on closing their doors entirely… if you're a working parent and you can't have a place to take your kid. That means you can't join the job force. You can't get into the job force… the restaurants, the general store, they have had to curtail their hours because they can attract the employees they need to stay open the hours of the community would like them to.”
Goshen County commissioner Michael McNamee said that he continues to hope that young people will come back to Goshen County and want to be a part of what their families have done on their farms and ranches for generations.
Read the full story HERE.
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The discovery of human remains on the muddy banks of a pond in West Valley City, Utah, in late March had several families with missing loved ones on edge as they waited for authorities to identify the remains.
More remains, including a skull and other bones, were discovered nearby a few days later. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that the news spread fast among families of missing people both in Utah and Wyoming.
“there was a set of bones found on March 25 just outside of Salt Lake City, about five to six miles away, in a pond…. and then a few days later, a second set of bones were found, and this time it was a human remains in a black plastic bag along the side of a road in Brigham City, which is about 60 miles from Salt Lake City. So again, you know the area is small enough where everybody within the six impacted. There's at least six people who are missing in that region… This is the reality these families live with. You know, these human remains will be found, and they all kind of congregate together and just say, who's it going to be? So they form this unfortunate family where they're all, you know, waiting, and when both human remains are announced, their whole lives go on hold, and they just wait to see if that's their loved one.”
For now, the families wait as they share information among each other based on third-hand accounts of brief conversations with detectives. The remains are currently under the jurisdiction of Utah’s Office of the Medical Examiner.
Read the full story HERE.
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Nature’s harsh side comes into sharp focus in the Blacktail Pond area of Yellowstone National Park – migrating bison can fall through the ice or get bogged down in the mud, sometimes struggling for hours before they die.
But Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that what’s bad news for bison is great news for grizzly bears, wolves and other carnivores that show up to feed on the massive carcasses.
“Blacktail pond in Yellowstone it's a series of, like, marshes and ponds that's really right near one of the roads there in Yellowstone. And it's kind of a rough spot for bison, because they move back and forth as the seasons change through that passage. And inevitably, some of them either get stuck in the mud or fall through the ice in these ponds and they drown. They die… That's bad news for the bison, but it's really good news for creatures like grizzly bears, foxes, wolves, any anything that that can benefit from that high quality protein that the the bison are so I guess, not graciously, but unfortunately for them, providing for all these other animals.”
Blacktail Pond is in a highly visible area near the road. So on one hand, that gives early-season tourists a chance to admire the migrating bison herds, and perhaps catch a glimpse of real life-and-death struggles. On the other hand, that can draw hungry grizzlies looking for a meal of bison meat uncomfortably close to crowds.
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.
