Nearly 25 years ago, Daniel “Danny” Moser was found unconscious, severely beaten and lying in a pool of his own blood in a roller-skating rink parking lot in Mills, just outside Casper, in the early morning hours of Oct. 20, 2001.
He was 27, a dog groomer and young husband and father.
Moser lingered on life support for two days until he died.
Twenty-five years later, no one has been able to say with certainty what happened to him that night, or who wasresponsible.
Those questions remain unanswered, but new leads in a case cold for a quarter of a century may soon change that.
Despite the years that have passed since he was killed, Moser’s case is an open and active investigation, said Ryan Cox, commander at the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) who also oversees the agency’s cold case team.
DCI took over the case from the Mills Police Department in 2013.
Recently, DCI has seen movement on the case that includes the agency’s advanced DNA testing on previously obtained physical evidence, Cox said.
‘Somebody Knows Something’
That testing did not generate any new leads, Cox said, but new information brought forth by a “concerned citizen” just might.
“The new report provides new objectives to achieve and inspires optimism,” Cox said, reiterating that the investigation is very much active.
He declined to provide additional information about the nature of the potential new evidence.
“To protect the integrity of the investigative process and ensure the admissibility of future evidence, the specific nature of this lead cannot be divulged,” Cox said in an email to Cowboy State Daily.
He encouraged others who may have information about the homicide to also come forward as did Moser’s family, who have been living with the agony of their loss for more than two decades.
“Danny’s death destroyed our family,” said his younger sister, Jamie Haigler. “Somebody knows something, and it’s time to come forward after all these years.”
Moser’s daughter Lauren Moser, now 28 but who was 4 at the time of her father’s murder, agrees, adding she feels obligated to get justice for her father.
“I’m just looking for answers, because he deserves answers, and I do, too,” she said.
‘He Was 10 Feet Tall And Bulletproof’
The night he was beaten, Moser had been out at a couple of local Casper bars — typical behavior, according to those whoknew him.
Moser was a social, well-liked guy, his sister said, and he was also known to drink and party. That night was no exception.
He began his evening at the Sandbar Lounge in Casper at about 7 p.m., where he allegedly got into a verbal altercation with another patron, according to a case synopsis from former Mills Police Department Capt. B.J. Wilkerson that was shared with Cowboy State Daily by Lauren Moser.
Around midnight, he headed over to the Cattleman’s Club, where again he was reported to have gotten into another verbal altercation with a friend, according to Wilkerson’s report.
Hearing her brother had been arguing with others in the bar didn’t necessarily surprise Haigler.
Though a slight man at about 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighing around 138 pounds, Moser could get mouthy when he drank, she said.
“He was 10 feet tall and bulletproof when he drank,” she said, which sometimes led to him getting into skirmishes.
That night, however, witnesses did not report any type of physical confrontation or any other “obvious problems among any of the patrons,” Wilkerson stated in a media report.
Moser stayed at the bar for about 45 minutes and was seen on video surveillance walking out by himself at around 12:45 a.m.
He was supposed to catch a ride with another patron, but that person had left because Moser wasn’t ready to go, according to Wilkerson.
That was the last time anyone saw Moser.
Found In A Parking Lot
Roughly 20 minutes later at 1:04 a.m., Moser was found by a Mills Police Department officer lying unconscious in the parking lot of the Wagon Wheel roller-skating rink there, a town of fewer than 4,000 residents roughly 4 miles from his last known location in Casper.
His face and head were badly beaten, and it also appeared he’d been struck and run over by a vehicle.
Evidence at the scene suggested someone had assaulted Moser and then struck him with a vehicle attempting to flee.
Moser’s checkbook and wallet were found nearby, but he still had cash in his pockets, so robbery was ruled out as a possible motive, the report states.
Moser sustained severe injuries to his skull and face as well as fractures to his right hip and vertebrae.
His official cause of death is homicide from blunt force trauma to his head, according to former Natrona County Coroner Dr. Jim Thorpen. His blood alcohol level was 0.29%, about three times the legal limit.
Two men were spotted leaving the Cattleman’s Club at around 12:45 a.m. on Oct. 20, 2001. Authorities were never able to track down the men with one pictured in this grainy image. (Courtesy Mills Police Department) 
Two men were spotted leaving the Cattleman’s Club at around 12:45 a.m. on Oct. 20, 2001. Authorities were never able to track down the men with one pictured in this grainy image. (Courtesy Mills Police Department)
Mystery Men
One early lead investigators attempted to track down involved two men caught on grainy video surveillance cameras leaving the bar behind Moser at roughly the same time he did.
Witnesses were unable to identify the men, who had reportedly been approaching people in the bar earlier asking where they could buy drugs and flashing large amounts of cash, according to the report.
Though a drinker, Moser was not known to use drugs.
Some witnesses said the men might have been from Billings, prompting Mills detectives to go to Montana looking for them.
To their knowledge, the mystery men were never found, according to Lauren and Haigler.
Wilkinson speculated in his report that Moser may have been approached by the men outside of the bar who may have offered him a lift.
He told a Billings Gazette reporter for a 2001 news story that he believed Moser may have accepted the ride and been attacked inside the vehicle, then escaped or was thrown out before being struck by the vehicle.
Cox, however, said he saw no evidence this was the case.
“I cannot personally testify to the theory that Moser was attacked inside a vehicle and either escaped or was thrown from it,” he said.
Other than these suspects, no other leads or tips have been publicly available as DCI continues its investigation.
Someone Knows
The answer, his family firmly believes, is out there, and they firmly believe people know much more than they are sharing.
And once again, Moser’s family hopes that whoever holds the answers has the decency to finally come forward and share that information with police.
Admittedly, being interviewed for news stories takes its toll on Lauren and Haigler, who have been here mainly times before, and though excruciating for them emotionally, both feel they have no choice but to keep sharing his story.
Visualizing what her brother endured that night takes a real toll on Haigler.
“I think it’s so sad that another human being could beat him that severely,” Haigler said.
He was fast and incredibly agile, and even intoxicated, Haigler wonders why he wasn’t able to run away.
She was three years younger than Moser, and then a young, 24-year-old mother of two small girls when her brother was killed.
She describes him as an incredibly kind, well-liked person who never knew a stranger.
Despite his party side, Moser was also a doting father and uncle with a sense of humor and loved to have fun.
She recalled one of her favorite memories of Moser in which he came over to her house when she was out watering in her yard. He grabbed the hose and doused both she and his nieces to their laughter and squeals of delight.
This is how she chooses to remember him — the smiling, good-looking guy on whom her teen friends all had crushes — and not the man lying beaten on the ground whose death has upended their family for 25 years.
Her parents were crushed by Moser’s untimely, violent death and that shadow continues to fall over them, Haigler said.
“If people understood what this is doing to us, then they might have the decency and heart to come forward,” she said.
The pain and devastation doesn’t go away with time, Haigler added.
The Dad She Doesn’t Know
Lauren Moser continues to live under the dark pallor her father’s murder has left behind.
She has only a few fuzzy memories of him and instead grew up trying to make sense of the tragedy and her complicated need to fight for justice and not let his memory fade.
Everything she knows about her dad is what she’s been told by her aunt and family: how much he loved and doted on her, and how he used to stand her on his open palm and toss her in the air and catch her.
All these years later, she still gets emotional thinking about the dad she never had growing up.
She reads from a letter that she wrote to her father that was published in the local newspaper. She guesses she was in first or second grade when she wrote it, and that it was probably an assignment during therapy.
“Dear Daddy,” it begins. “I miss you a lot.”
She goes on to tell him about all her friends and how she likes to play soccer and has the same teacher he did when he was in school.
“I wish you were here to give me a puppy,” she said, reading from the letter with tears in her eyes.
She remembers drawing trees and butterflies to go with the letter because she had been told that she could find him in nature watching over her.
Without her own memories of her father, she creates them outside of the trauma of his death.
Sometimes on a road trip, she sees his likeness in her passenger seat and sometimes he appears at the foot of her bed.
Daughter On A Mission
She’s had her own share of trauma in the aftermath of losing her dad and continues to battle her those inner demons while advocating for her father.
This quest for justice likely led to her returning to college to study criminology and she’d like to also get experience working as a private investigator.
Lauren also keeps her father’s memory alive in her own daughter, who she named the masculine Danny with a “y” just like his.
When people inquire about the non-traditional spelling, Danny likes to tell them she’s just like her papa who, she also knows through secondhand details: his love of the classic rock band the Eagles and the fact his favorite color was blue.
One day, Lauren hopes to finally discover the truth, not so much for herself, but so that her father can finally have justice, and in doing so, she and her family can finally begin to try to heal.
She’s hopeful that after 25 years, the truth will be revealed.
“It won’t be closure because hurt just doesn’t seal like that,” she said. “Likely, it would be the best day but also the worst day of our lives when we finally know what happened.”
Cox also urges anyone with information about the 2001 murder of Danny Moser to directly contact DCI at 307-777-7181 or submit an anonymous tip on the agency’s website.
Anonymous tips can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), and there may be a financial award for information leading to an arrest.
Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.
