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<title>Daily Cartoon 2: Friday, October 24, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon 2: Friday, October 24, 2025

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Around Wyoming

Public Safety

Sweetwater County Sheriff's Deputy Zach Otte keeps a plastic sandwich bag full of coins tucked in his pocket.

It started as a $20 bill exchanged for quarters. Now it's become an essential piece of patrol equipment.

Otte, who has been with the sheriff's office for two years, is on a summertime mission to visit as many lemonade stands as his calls for service will allow.

The effort began after Jason Mower, the Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office public affairs director, announced on social media that deputies would spend the summer hunting down lemonade stands — places where they could wet their whistles, encourage young entrepreneurs and build connections with local families.

[{"type":"text","text":"Big dreams. Small stands. Cold lemonade."}]

Those are the kinds of calls Sweetwater County deputies are hoping to answer during the dog days of summer.

"This year, from my perspective as public affairs director, we have a lot going on with an election cycle and a lot of unknowns about what the next nine months will hold," Mower told Cowboy State Daily. "People are antsy."

He saw a similar initiative online and realized there was no reason Sweetwater County couldn't do the same.

Through social media, Mower invites parents whose children are operating lemonade stands to send him a direct message with the location and hours.

"Summer break is here, and we know there are some hardworking young business owners across Sweetwater County setting up tables, mixing lemonade and chasing big dreams one cup at a time," the sheriff's office wrote in announcing the Lemonade Patrol.

[{"type":"text","text":"The response was immediate."}]

"Boy, about the second I did that, my direct message inbox was flooded," Mower said.

He now maintains a running list of stands, updating it several times a week and sending locations out to deputies.

"Every time Jason sends out an address of where a stand is set up, if I'm not on a call, that's my first stop," Otte said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Maelie's Big Goal"}]

One youngster who benefited from the Lemonade Patrol is 6-year-old Maelie Teuscher.

Maelie was selling lemonade Friday outside Napa Auto Parts in Green River when deputies Otte and Mike Merkley pulled up.

[{"type":"text","text":"She wasn't pocketing the proceeds."}]

Maelie was raising money for the Clearwater Aquarium in Florida, where she will soon attend a marine biology camp.

Each year, her mother, Moriah Teuscher, tries to teach her daughter the value of working for opportunities and giving back.

"We like her to give back for opportunities and realize not everything is just handed to you," Teuscher told Cowboy State Daily.

This year, Maelie decided she wanted to sell lemonade to benefit an aquarium made famous as the home of dolphins featured in the 

 movies. Customers could have a cup of lemonade in exchange for a donation of any amount.

After two hours behind the lemonade table, Maelie headed home with $387.60 destined for the aquarium.

[{"type":"text","text":"Seeing sheriff's deputies pull up was among the highlights of the day."}]

"It's a neat initiative to teach kids that law enforcement is there to help," Teuscher said. "Their lemonade funds come out of their own pocket. It's all in the goodness of their hearts."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than A Cup Of Lemonade"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Weekends have become especially busy for the lemonade patrol."}]

Not a weekend has passed since the initiative launched without deputies sending Mower photos of themselves sipping lemonade and grinning alongside young entrepreneurs.

Lemonade patrols have been popping up in communities around the country as law enforcement agencies look for ways to build positive relationships with families. Mower said he is unaware of any other Wyoming agency operating an organized effort like Sweetwater County's.

Police departments in Twin Falls, Idaho, and Puyallup, Washington, participate in their own initiative to support youth lemonade stands. Other interactions between young entrepreneurs and law enforcement occur more unofficially.

The Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office asks parents not to publicly post their children's locations, but instead to send them privately through Facebook.

"We love seeing kids build confidence, responsibility and a little small-business grit," the sheriff's office shared on social media.

[{"type":"text","text":"For Otte, the patrol is about changing perceptions."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"A big thing for me is to get out in communities,\" he said."}]

Too often, he said, children assume a patrol car means someone is in trouble.

"I like to flip that," Otte said. "We give them positive interactions. We sit there and connect with them. We ask why they're doing it."

One of his favorite stops was a lemonade and bake sale at a Green River school.

After buying lemonade and a cake pop, Otte turned on his patrol lights for the children.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"They were over the moon,\" he said. “They were giddy.”"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Lt. Derek Morrell has been making informal lemonade stops for years."}]

After once arriving at a stand empty-handed, he started keeping a cup full of spare change in his patrol car. The cup moves with him whenever he changes patrol cars.

Mower said he believes the initiative has made deputies more mindful of what local kids are doing throughout the summer.

"I think it's led to paying more attention to those types of things," he said.

For example, one deputy noticed while out on lemonade patrol that the Green River high school wrestling team was having a burgers and brats fundraiser.

"I think with the lemonade stands and kids on our deputies' radar, it's led to some other interactions with youth," Mower said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Inflation Even Hits Lemonade"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The first cup Mower bought this summer cost $1."}]

"At the next stand, it cost $2," he said, laughing. "I was like, 'What is this?'"

[{"type":"text","text":"Deputies jokingly blamed inflation."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"One young entrepreneur sweetened the deal by offering 25-cent refills."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Mower gladly took advantage."}]

"I'll stand here and talk to you and have an extra cup of lemonade," he said.

Word about the lemonade patrol continues to spread as children tell their friends about deputies stopping by.

Mower said he hopes it may even inspire kids who are bored during summer break to try something new.

"Maybe it's not lemonade," he said. "Maybe they make chocolate chip cookies."

For deputies, the effort has become a simple but meaningful reminder that community policing can be as easy as stopping for a cold drink on a hot afternoon.

"We're helping kids realize we're not just here to take everyone to jail," Mower said. "We're people, too. We care."

"There are days where it's hot, and we don't want to just be drinking water or energy drinks," he said.

In many ways, deputies say the lemonade patrol has proven to be a win-win: Kids gain customers, officers gain conversations, and a community gets one more reason to smile.

Or, as Mower put it, the biggest question may be why it took them so long to think of it.

[{"type":"text","text":"Sometimes, the sweetest ideas are also the simplest."}]

Lemonade Maelie with Sweetwater County Sheriffs Deputy Mike Merkley 7 4 26

<title>Why Sweetwater County Sheriff's Deputies Make It A Point To Support Lemonade Stands | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office is making it a point to support lemonade stands in the community. Deputy Zach Otte said that children assume a patrol car means someone is in trouble. The lemonade patrol is about changing perceptions, he said.

Why Sweetwater County Sheriff's Deputies Make It A Point To Support Lemonade Stands

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Wyoming Life

For more than 40 years, Hope Sheets marched through Cody's famed Stampede Parade in a flowing pink gown, four-inch heels and an extravagant flowered hat, waving to thousands of spectators while leading a fluffy white poodle dyed bubblegum pink.

[{"type":"text","text":"Children waited for her."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Visitors photographed her."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Generations of Cody residents simply expected to see her."}]

When Sheets died in May 2025, the Pink Lady disappeared with her, and last year's Fourth of July felt different.

"It was a weird parade," said her oldest daughter, Lisa Kealey. "We were all very sad to go watch it without my mom in it."

[{"type":"text","text":"This year, however, the Pink Lady returned."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"In Her Shoes"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Kealey insists she never intended to step into her mother's famous shoes."}]

Then parade organizers invited her to help celebrate America's 250th birthday by bringing back some of the event's most iconic entries.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I just said yes,\" she recalled. \"I didn't think about it.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Only afterward did the reality sink in."}]

"I'm doing my version of my mom," Kealey said. "I'm not copy-catting her exactly, but it is the same idea. It has the same personality."

Hope's original gown wouldn't fit. Standing just over five feet tall, she was much smaller than her daughter.

Kealey sat at her sewing machine and created a new pink dress inspired by the original — one longtime Cody residents would instantly recognize, but that still reflected her own style.

[{"type":"text","text":"One piece, however, came directly from her mother's costume."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The flower-covered hat."}]

"I actually gave her that hat," Kealey said. "So now it comes full circle."

She carefully cleaned it, reshaped it and added fresh posies before wearing it down Sheridan Avenue.

"I do look quite a bit like my mom," Kealey said. "And everybody that found out is just super, super excited that I'm kind of bringing this whole thing back in honor of her."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Poodles To Pomeranian"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"After the decision was made, one challenge remained. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The Pink Lady needed a pink dog."}]

Courtney asked the community if anyone had a white poodle she could borrow.

"I was shocked at how many people came forward to offer their dog," she said.

At one point she nearly settled on Roscoe, a large Goldendoodle whose owner had even bought him tiny pink Crocs.

"It was hilarious," Kealey said, but ultimately, Roscoe was simply too much dog.

Instead, she found a tiny white Pomeranian to be professionally groomed and dyed before the parade.

"She'll look like a little stuffed animal out there," she said ahead of the march. 

For a few blocks through downtown Cody, spectators once again saw a flash of pink, a fluffy pink dog, and a familiar flowered hat.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Performance Art"}]

Long before she became the Pink Lady, Hope Sheets was already well known around Wyoming.

She and her husband, Lloyd, traveled the country performing music before eventually settling in Cody, where the family became known for singing and entertaining together.

When health problems ended her singing career, Sheets found another stage.

She opened a dog grooming business with the slogan, "There's Hope for Your Pooch."

[{"type":"text","text":"Then she had another idea."}]

"She lived to perform," Kealey said, so it made sense to advertise her dog grooming business in dramatic fashion. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The gimmick worked."}]

"It was just kind of a cool, catchy thing to do," Kealey said. "She was very brilliant, very creative, and it just took hold."

Soon, the Pink Lady became one of the Cody Stampede Parade's most recognizable figures.

Kealey laughs that many people remember the pink dress before anything else.

"It's hilarious that she's known for that when she was such an amazing musician and singer."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Cody Original"}]

"She was alive and nutty and crazy," is how Jenny Zink remembers her longtime friend.

Their shared love of performing quickly grew into a friendship that lasted more than three decades.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"She was a very dramatic person in a lively, colorful way,\" Zink said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The parade simply amplified who Hope already was."}]

"She walked in three-inch heels all the way down the parade route and just waved," Zink remembered. "People would run out from the crowd and give her a hug."

Even after breaking her ankle while rescuing one of her beloved poodles, Hope refused to miss the parade.

Instead, Zink dressed as a nurse and pushed her the entire route in a wheelchair, her cast stretched proudly out front while the pink poodle trotted alongside.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We weren't going to miss the parade,\" Zink recalled with a laugh."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Hope's absence last year didn't go unnoticed."}]

"People would ask why she wasn't in the parade," Zink said. "They just couldn't imagine that she would be missing a parade after all those years."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than Pink"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"To Kealey, her mother was much more than Cody's Pink Lady."}]

"She was an irreverent, brilliant, funny, naughty and loving, eccentric person,” she said.

Growing up, Kealey remembers waiting for Hope to come home after late-night performances.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"She'd come in and lean over my bed and kiss me goodnight,” she said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Remembering that still brings tears."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I loved my mom,\" Kealey said. \"I couldn't imagine life without her.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then she laughed while describing the woman the community adored. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Kealey chuckled before describing another side of her mother."}]

"She was narcissistic,” she said. "She would be out there to see who could see her, but in the process of seeing who could see her, she saw other people too.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"They felt seen by her. She just made everybody she met feel special.\""}]

Cody Stampede Parade 3

<title>Cody’s ‘Pink Lady’ Back In Stampede Parade As Daughter Continues 40-Year Legacy | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Hope Sheets was a fixture for four decades in the Cody Stampede Parade as the “Pink Lady.” More than a year after her death, her daughter has stepped into the iconic pink dress to keep the tradition alive. "I'm doing my version of my mom," she said.

Cody’s ‘Pink Lady’ Back In Stampede Parade As Daughter Continues 40-Year Legacy

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

Crime & Courts

Belynda May Grantham was a 20-year-old single mother still finding her footing when her partially clothed body was recovered from the bottom of the North Platte River outside of Glenrock, a rock tied to her neck, in August 1982. 

Grantham had been strangled. She lay submerged for days before a passing bicyclist spotted her.

It would take nearly a month and a newspaper sketch before anyone could identify her.

[{"type":"text","text":"Her murder has never been solved."}]

For her only remaining sibling, Rebecca Grantham, her sister’s death remains a source of pain. At 67 and in ailing health, she’d like to see someone brought to justice.

“She was a really good, smart girl who could have literally done anything with her life if given the chance,” Rebecca said of her younger sister.

[{"type":"text","text":"Her hope is to get answers before she dies."}]

The investigation remains active and ongoing, according to Ryan Cox, a commander with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation who also oversees the agency’s cold-case team.

Cox, too, said he believes it’s not too late to finally solve this crime and asks anyone with information to come forward.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Push For Answers"}]

The murder has never stopped haunting her. Now living in Sacramento, California, Rebecca has teamed with Amanda Patterson in her quest for answers.

Patterson is the daughter of Bonnie Jones, Grantham’s best friend from their teenage years in Casper.

The two women were each carrying their own unresolved grief when they first connected on Facebook. Patterson had been helping her ailing mother type messages online and, through that, formed a bond with Rebecca.

After Jones passed away in February, they remained in touch. In early June, the two created 

the Facebook page “Justice for Belinda May Grantham

At some point during her teens, Grantham began spelling her first name “Belinda,” though never had it legally changed. For this reason, her name appears both ways in news stories about her murder.

The page shares news articles about the murder and the long-unidentified body, along with pleas for anyone with information to reach out to authorities.

Their hope was to renew interest in Grantham’s case and to invite people who knew her to share their memories and photographs — something Rebecca is especially eager for, as she has only one of her sister from childhood.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Putting Together Pieces"}]

Much like her death, the details of Grantham’s life in her final years remain a mystery to those who loved her. 

She was born in Washington state and her family moved through the Pacific Northwest before settling in Casper in 1963.

When Grantham and her siblings were teenagers, their mother, Jeanette, died, upending their lives. According to her obituary, Jeanette died after a lengthy illness at age 36 in November 1974.

Before her mother’s death, Grantham had been a straight-A student. She competed in the Future Farmers of America and took home ribbons for her homemade clothing at the 1977 Central Wyoming Fair. She made the honor roll at East Junior High School.

After losing her mother, Grantham struggled to find her bearings and ran away from time to time.

Their father remarried quickly, and the children, unable to get along with their new stepmother, scattered to relatives’ homes. They drifted in and out of group homes and foster care.

[{"type":"text","text":"There she met a tight group of friends, including Bonnie Jones."}]

Grantham and Jones had an instant connection, Patterson said. In fact, they were so close that Jones gave Grantham a friendship ring, which would be used to help identify her later.

Somewhere around 1978 and 1979, Grantham left Casper to work with a traveling carnival headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She did that for two years before returning to Wyoming.

 By then, Jones had moved to Wichita, Kansas, and the best friends stayed in touch through letters and phone calls.

In April 1981, Grantham gave birth to a baby girl, according to a birth announcement in the Casper-Star Tribune, which listed her address as Mills, Wyoming. It’s unclear if the father of the child was in her life at the time.

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

More than 40 years later, Belinda’s final days continue to baffle her family.

Just as mysterious as her murder is what Grantham’s life was like during that time. This was the era before cell phones, social media and surveillance cameras and the modern trappings that log peoples’ every move and help them stay connected to friends and family.

In 1980s, people communicated with landline telephones in their home and through letters.

Because Grantham tended to move around a lot, her loved ones didn’t piece together that she was missing.

“Because of this established pattern, her absence did not immediately alarm her family and friends,” Cox said.

Then they saw the sketch of the unidentified dead women in the paper and reality hit them hard.

Writing about that moment years later, the girls’ aunt, Jean Henry Mead, spoke of the shock of seeing the drawing in the paper.

“I gasped when I noticed the drawing of a murder victim in the newspaper one morning ...,” Mead 

Not long after, she received a frantic call from her mother-in-law, Grantham’s grandmother.

“No, it can’t be Belinda,” she wrote.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What Happened That Night?"}]

Her friends and family scrambled to sort out the mystery of Grantham’s last steps.

In July, Grantham and a male friend took a trip to Kansas to see Jones but were unable to connect with her because she wasn’t home when they arrived, Patterson said.

For this reason, many of her friends had assumed Grantham was still in Kansas at the time of her disappearance.

Her living situation was fluid at that point, Cox said, but Grantham was reported to have been staying on and off with a family in Mills in the months leading up to her death.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Also unclear are her final moments."}]

Multiple witnesses report seeing her at the Husky Truck Stop and, later, at the Central Wyoming Fair, he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Her last sighting was at about 8:30 p.m. Aug. 2 at the fair."}]

Cox further stated that records indicate Grantham was unemployed, but given the nature of carnival work could not rule out that she might have been at the fair working that night.

[{"type":"text","text":"Rebecca told Cox that it was highly possible she may have been."}]

Cox declined to say who reported spotting her and who she was seen with that night out of fear of jeopardizing the investigation.

It’s been 44 years since a young Casper woman was found dead in the North Platte River with a rock tied around her neck. The murder has never stopped haunting her older sister Rebecca. In failing health, Rebecca is hoping to find answers before she dies.

Daily Cartoon 2: Friday, October 24, 2025

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