Moments after reportedly shooting his estranged wife Cassandra Clinger early Wednesday, 43-year-old Christopher Moon texted his mother-in-law.
“You were right,” wrote Christopher Moon, according to a screenshot the of the exchange the family gave Thursday to Cowboy State Daily. “Satan, got ahold of me. I’m so sorry, I love her so much.”
Cassandra’s mother Cynthia was home with the divorcing pair’s three children at her rural home on Jackknife Road, just west of the Wyoming-Idaho state line.
Christopher Moon sent Cynthia a few more statements urging her to take care of the kids, who are ages 4, 2, and newborn.
“Don’t do it,” answered Cynthia in a text message. “Your kids need you. All of them.”
“Just tell them that we love them and take care of our kids,” he responded. "We know they’re in good hands with you and jared, you’re amazing.”
Six minutes before that text exchange unfolded at 8:12 a.m. Wednesday, Moon had called law enforcement to say he’d just shot his wife, according to a statement by the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Department in Idaho.
The 911 caller, who identified himself as Moon, “indicated he had a gun and was going to take his own life,” says the statement.
Cynthia also called law enforcement.
Bonneville County sheriff’s deputies and the SWAT team responded to the area, as did Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office personnel from Wyoming and Star Valley Ambulance.
Deputies arrived to find Christopher’s vehicle and Cassandra’s vehicle, each parked on the side of the road. They spoke with Chrisopher briefly by phone, urging him to surrender peacefully.
Moments later, law enforcement observed as Moon shot himself, the statement says.
Deputies approached both vehicles, the statement continues, finding Christopher and Cassandra both dead from apparent gunshot wounds.
Cassandra Clinger was 23.
‘Not Something You Actually Think Is Going To Happen’
Cassandra’s youngest sister Jessica Clinger, 21, said many in the Clinger family worried Christopher “was headed in that direction,” and they were scared he’d do something drastic as the pair’s divorce progressed.
“But it’s not something you actually think is going to happen,” said Jessica. “You assume it could, but you don’t think it will.”
The oldest of the six Clinger sisters, Alexa Edwards, told Cowboy State Daily that red flags surfaced from the beginning of the relationship when Christopher Moon was 37 and Cassandra Clinger was 17 — and in her senior year at Star Valley High School.
Christopher Moon had been juggling custody and parenting situations with his four children and their three mothers by that time, according to both Alexa’s account and his Wyoming court record.
A woman had challenged Christopher in Sublette County District Court in 2011 over a custody matter regarding their then 4-year-old child.
In January 2014, Christopher challenged another woman for custody of their infant child. That petition acknowledges that the mother in that case had filed and received a temporary domestic violence protection order against him.
He alleged that the woman “continually makes false allegations against the fathers of her children.” He filed another custody dispute against a third woman in February 2019 over two minor children who were then about 2 and 4 years old.
The Fights
Cassandra had mental health struggles as a teen, and they didn’t relent in adulthood, said Alexa.
Yet Cassandra eventually channeled those into the Facebook group she built to support and encourage others toward mental wellness.
“So he just preyed on her mental health vulnerability,” said Alexa, adding that Cassie’s young age was also a factor in their relationship.
“When you are in that situation these people — these predators or whatever you want to call them — are so good at twisting the truth or taking little truths and running with them,” said Alexa. “And twisting and manipulating it to make them look safe.”
Jessica said she shared a room with Cassie in high school, adding that she had to hear Cassie’s end of their fights over the phone, and watch how that affected her sister.
Alexa said Cassie moved in with Christopher the week she graduated from high school. Back then, he lashed out at her about money, the sister added.
Alexa said Christopher was physically, mentally and verbally abusive, and that he’d scream at Cassie, punch doors, throw objects and threaten to kill himself.
She said there were occasions when Christopher would throw Cassie onto a couch and knock an object onto her.
Jessica characterized the physical aspect of their clashes as jarring threats, rather than physical beatings.
For a long time Cassie “didn’t think it was abuse because she wasn’t getting hit,” Jessica recalled. “She gave examples like, she had to wrestle a gun away from him; or he’d shake his fits in her face, or yell at her so hard he’d spit on her. Or slam doors and break them.”
Christopher Moon’s Wyoming state court file does not show any domestic violence charges. His Idaho record shows one misdemeanor charge for violating a domestic violence protection order, and a felony stalking charge, both dating back to Oct. 31, 2005, when he was 23.
He was convicted of the misdemeanor, and the prosecutor dismissed the felony, leading to a probation term, the file says.
‘Love Bombing’
Christopher and Cassie’s relationship worsened gradually and cyclically, Alexa said.
She said he first spoiled Cassie with a “honeymoon stage.”
Then once the abuse episodes started, he’d make up with Cassie in outlandish displays of affection, Alexa continued. She called those the “love-bombing stage.”
“They’re buying you things, you’re doing things together,” said Alexa. “Then it starts crumbling down again. Then the fighting; explosions. … You get addicted to this cycle.”
Christopher Moon did not cut Cassandra off from all her connections, but he nagged her for spending too much time with her family and riddled her with statements like, “Well, you’ve been at your family’s too long, I guess I won’t eat,” said Alexa.
They’d separate. They’d reconcile.
Cassie gave birth to their oldest son the summer of 2021, at age 19.
To Alexa, that was another means for Christopher to control Cassie.
Cassie delivered their second son in June 2023.
“Then it was, ‘Oh, I need to stay, we’re having another baby,’” Alexa recalled.
By 2024, Cassie was frustrated that Christopher hadn’t married her, and Christopher had been “holding (that) over her head,” said Alexa.
So Cassie left.
Then Christopher proposed to her and they married that July. She became pregnant around the turn of the new year, and delivered their third child — a girl — in August 2025.
Cassie wrote on “We Are Not Alone,” her mental health forum, that she struggled with postpartum depression. But she was also growing up, said Alexa.
She was working as a medical receptionist at Star Valley Health in Alpine.
“She’s … been able to see some of this is not normal,” the sister recalled. “And she’s regaining that power and control.”
Tracking Device
The week after Thanksgiving 2025, Cassie left Christopher and moved in with her parents and with Jessica at the Clinger family home, Jessica said.
She’d been through fights and scathing insults, but what pushed Casse over the edge was that Christopher called her “worthless,” the sister added.
The two sisters went to clean Cassie’s things out of the house, Jessica recalled, saying that Christopher was "screaming at Cassie" as they worked.
Alexa said Christopher was also “cyberstalking” Cassie after she left him.
Both sisters said Cassie obtained a protection order against Christopher, but that he gained court permission to interact with her about their children.
As Cassie and Jessica drove around together in early December, their phones kept warning them that a tracking device was following them, said Jessica.
The women searched their car for the device on Dec. 11, until midnight, and never found it. Cassie took the car to the dealership, said Jessica, and staffers there couldn’t find it either.
Cassie mentioned the notifications to Christopher during a child dropoff.
He rummaged in the car himself.
As Christopher and Cassie walked into his home to settle the children, said Jessica, Cassie got another phone notification that the device was following her, said Jessica, adding, “And that’s the last time she got a notification of it.”
Both sisters said Cassie later found the device’s product box in Christopher’s home. Alexa sent Cowboy State Daily a photograph of the box.
Hearing about the saga while at her home in North Carolina, Alexa was furious.
“If that’s happening it’s something extremely serious,” she said.
Cassie filed for divorce and primary physical custody of the children Dec. 30.
She urged the court to give Christopher “reasonable visitation rights,” however.
Christopher Moon conceded in his answer, filed Jan. 6, that they had irreconcilable differences.
Babies Not There
Alexa emphasized in her interview that contrary to some online gossip, none of the children were shot or harmed.
Cynthia was home with the children during the reported murder-suicide. Cassie’s father, Jared, was at work, Alexa said.
As of Wednesday night, the children didn’t know yet that their parents had died.
“What do you say to that young of kids in this situation?” said Alexa.
Remember, Remember
Cassie told people she was 6 feet tall but she was 5-11, Jessica said with a tearful chuckle.
“She was the most amazing person ever. She took her trials and tribulations and shared them to help other people,” Jessica said.
Alexa called her sister “the best mother. She didn’t feel like it all the time, but she was such a good mom.”
Alexa said she hopes Cassie’s story reminds people to check on each other, and to alert their loved ones of relationship red flags.
“They may not want to listen, but at some point, that seed will plant,” said Alexa. “We have a broken system, but we just need to build awareness around it. Because the silence is what keeps this domestic abuse going.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
