Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"Proof that sprinting is more fun drunk…."}]

Darwin 5 11 26

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Monday, May 11, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Proof that sprinting is more fun drunk….

Daily Darwin: Monday, May 11, 2026

 Proof that sprinting is more fun drunk….

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

Montana game wardens remain baffled by the case of a yearling mule deer being killed with a blow dart in the town of Roundup, north of Billings.

Meanwhile in Billings, ducks in municipal park ponds keep getting shot with darts from blowguns as well.

Many of the birds survived and have been spotted swimming around with darts sticking out of their backs.   

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) is seeking tips to nab the blow dart bandit or bandits. It remains unclear whether there’s any connection between the deer killing in Roundup and waterfowl getting darted in Billings.

As in Wyoming, it’s illegal to hunt in Montana with blowguns. These are tube-shaped weapons with ancient roots that use the shooter’s breath to propel darts or spikes at high velocity.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Deer Dies"}]

On March 23, the Musselshell County, Montana, Sheriff’s Office received a report that a deer had been killed with a blow dart in the 100 block of 5

 Street West in Roundup, and the case was turned over to FWP.

The deer was a yearling, Region 5 game warden Sgt. Connor Langel told Cowboy State Daily.

It’s also likely that the animal suffered, he added.

It wasn’t clear whether the deer had bled out over a long period of time or developed a lethal infection in the blow dart wound, he said.

So far, the case has game wardens stumped, and they hope to develop solid leads through tips, he said.

“Our tips in the case just seem to ebb and flow. I don’t know if there’s any rhyme or reason to how tips come in,” he said.

The case went quiet for a while, but there seems to be renewed interest in it, Langel said.

“It’s really resurged in social media,” he said.

When the perpetrator or perpetrators are caught, they could face charges of hunting deer during a closed season, hunting with unlawful equipment and possibly unlawfully hunting within city limits, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Darted Ducks"}]

Leads are likewise sparse in the case of ducks being blow-darted in Billings, he said.

Last year and so far this year, there have been multiple reported instances of ducks being shot and wounded with blow darts. The shootings have happened in the Shiloh Conservation Ponds and ponds in Rose Park, FWP reported.

Anyone with information about the wildlife blow-darting can report to FWP at 

, and could be eligible for a $1,000 reward.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Boosted With Poison"}]

Blowguns don’t measure up to bows, rifles, shotguns or other more modern, legal hunting weapons used for big game, retired University of Wyoming archaeology professor Robert Kelly told Cowboy State Daily.

Historically, blowguns were used to hunt only small game and birds.

“Sometimes (darts were laced) with poison; the darts are usually way too small to stop a critter the size of a mule deer,” Kelly said.

“In Madagascar they hunted birds with large darts, about 65 centimeters (roughly 26 inches) long, but no poison,” he said. “They relied on the size of the dart to drag the bird down. 

"So, I’d say it’s not possible to take down a deer with a blowgun unless you’re using poison. And then you’d probably have a considerable tracking job."

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<title>Deer Killed, Ducks Maimed: Montana Wildlife Keeps Getting Shot With Blow Darts | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Montana game wardens are trying to crack the case of a mule deer fawn being killed with a blow dart, along with ducks and geese getting attacked. Aside from maiming and killing the animals, shooting them with blow darts is illegal.

Deer Killed, Ducks Maimed: Montana Wildlife Keeps Getting Shot With Blow Darts

Jimmy orr

Jimmy Orr

A California man said he was dragged 20-30 feet by a grizzly before it finally let him go in an attack he sustained late last month in Glacier National Park.

The report of the attack, which up until now has been scant of specifics, has turned vivid with Daniel Crago discussing the blow-by-blow of his bear encounter on a 

Crago says he was on his last day of a hiking trip when he peeled away from his friend to “take in some views.”

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s when he spotted a “smaller” grizzly."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then the worst thing happened: he spotted a larger grizzly."}]

“I did as you’re told, I alerted the bear,” he said, which was about 15 feet away.

[{"type":"text","text":"That did no good."}]

“At that point, I was so close it likely frightened the bear,” he said. “As soon as it saw me, it charged down and attacked me.”

“I threw my arm up, it bit my arm, dragged me about 20-30 feet, and took off,” he said in the post.

The National Park Service said park employees believe that loud rushing water made it difficult for the hiker or the bears to detect each other.

Calling the experience “terrifying,” Crago said he was fortunate in that a pediatrician was in the area who was able to stabilize the arm while another hiker made noises in an attempt to keep the bears from coming back.

[{"type":"text","text":"The bears did not return."}]

Another hiker, he said, alerted emergency services and a helicopter airlifted him to nearby hospital in Kalispell.

He’s had three surgeries so far, he said, and is expecting at least one more.

"I am facing significant medical bills from the treatment and care I received," he said. "The costs are overwhelming, and I am reaching out for help to cover these expenses so I can continue my recovery."

Retired ecologist Chuck Neal of Cody, who frequently hikes solo in grizzly country, told Cowboy State Daily that hiking in Glacier Park demands extra alertness.

“Encounters can happen at just a few yards away” if hikers aren’t paying keen attention, Neal said.

“It’s a high-quality habitat for bears. It’s better habitat for bears than Yellowstone is” and tends to attract a younger crowd, he said.

“Those younger hikers go barreling up those trails without paying that much attention,” Neal said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Busy Season For Bear Attacks"}]

Crago’s is the latest of multiple bear encounters with humans in the region so far this season.

Earlier in the month, Glacier Park reported its 

 since 1998 when the body of Florida resident Anthony Pollio, 33, was found May 6 two days after he was reported missing.

His body was found about 50 feet from the trail he’d apparently been hiking on.

 when they were attacked by a female grizzly with cubs near Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.

On May 26, a man running on a trail in British Columbia, Canada, was attacked by a female black bear with two cubs.

Outdoor adventurer Michael Hodges was photographing grizzlies in the Glacier Park backcountry on the day that Pollio’s body was discovered about 15 miles away.

Later, he was on the same trail where the alleged May 28 bear attack was reported.

“I was up on the trail the week of May 6 and saw many grizzlies,” he stated in a text message to Cowboy State Daily last week.

“I warned hikers from California and Texas at the trailhead that there was an unusual number of griz, and to be extra alert,” stated Hodges, a novelist and internet personality.

Daniel crago 6 5 26

<title>California Man Says Grizzly Dragged Him 30 Feet In Glacier National Park Attack | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A California hiker said after he surprised two grizzlies last month on a trail in Glacier National Park, the larger bear bit through his arm and dragged him 30 feet. “I did as you’re told, I alerted the bear,” he said, but the bear attacked him anyway.

California Man Says Grizzly Dragged Him 30 Feet In Glacier National Park Attack

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Washington man is facing 14 wildlife-related criminal charges in Campbell County after Wyoming investigators say years-old Instagram videos, voice messages and cellphone data uncovered evidence of alleged illegal hunting trips that stretched back more than a decade.

Court records filed in Campbell County allege Bobby Chuck Ephrem, 48, illegally killed antelope and mule deer in Wyoming in 2014, 2015 and 2020, sometimes from vehicles, sometimes without licenses and at least once using a .22-caliber pistol that investigators say was illegal for taking big game.

The charges stem from an Idaho wildlife investigation that eventually led Wyoming Game and Fish investigators to social media posts, archived videos and cellphone extractions that they say show hunting activity in Campbell County.

An arrest warrant was issued June 4, 2025. Ephrem later appeared in Campbell County Circuit Court for a hearing on Tuesday, where bond was set at $75,000. Court records show he posted a surety bond on Wednesday.

As a condition of release, Ephrem is not allowed to leave Campbell County and is barred from hunting, fishing, trapping, collecting shed antlers or accompanying anyone engaged in hunting or fishing activities while the case is pending.

A voicemail seeking comment from the Campbell County Attorney's Office was not returned before publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Case Built From Phones And Social Media"}]

The investigation began in April 2024 when Idaho conservation officers shared information uncovered during an ongoing wildlife investigation, according to an affidavit filed by Wyoming Game and Fish Investigator Daniel Beach.

Investigators say Instagram videos, voice messages, and other evidence pointed them toward multiple incidents involving antelope and mule deer.

Beach wrote that he later traveled to Oregon in June 2024 to assist Oregon State Police while that agency executed a search warrant at Ephrem's home.

During the search and interview, investigators say Ephrem talked about several mounted animals displayed in his home and admitted to killing some of them in Wyoming.

The affidavit shows Wyoming investigators subsequently reviewed cellphone extraction data, Instagram videos and archived voice messages that they believe corroborated those admissions.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'No Permission, Just Shoot'"}]

Some of the most serious allegations center on an October 2020 antelope hunt in Campbell County.

Investigators discovered Instagram voice messages sent from Ephrem's account that referenced plans to hunt antelope in Wyoming.

One message cited in the charging documents read, "We're going antelope hunting today."

Another allegedly said, "No, just drive around and shoot shit. No permission, just shoot."

Investigators say they later identified the location shown in one of the videos as private property owned by Peabody Caballo Mining LLC south of Gillette.

Neither the company nor the rancher leasing the pasture granted permission for the hunting activity depicted in the videos, wrote Beach. 

In another video, investigators say Ephrem can be seen firing a rifle at antelope from inside a vehicle. 

Investigators also allege the video showed Ephrem handing the rifle to a younger passenger.

The charging documents include allegations of wanton destruction of antelope, taking big game from a vehicle, trespassing to hunt and accessory counts connected to those offenses.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The .22-Caliber Pistol Allegation"}]

A separate video described in the affidavit forms the basis for another series of charges.

Investigators say the recording showed Ephrem driving a Dodge Ram pickup while firing a pistol at multiple antelope from the roadway and adjacent ditch.

Beach wrote they later determined the firearm appeared to be a GSG 1911-style .22-caliber pistol, and that Ephrem fired 10 rounds at several antelope from close range.

During a June 2024 interview, Ephrem said, "I remember shooting, yes, got it.'" 

The case includes charges alleging illegal use of a firearm for taking big game, wanton destruction and taking big game from a vehicle.

Investigators also allege another man, who they say appeared in some of the videos, later confirmed witnessing portions of the hunt during a recorded interview.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Allegations Reach Back To 2014"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The investigation didn't stop with the 2020 videos."}]

Cellphone data allegedly connected Ephrem to an antelope killed in 2015 and a mule deer killed in 2014.

Beach wrote that Ephrem admitted during a 2024 interview to those killings. 

Wyoming licensing records showed Ephrem did not possess licenses for those species during the years in question, says investigators, and that Ephrem improperly used or transferred hunting licenses connected to his son during some of the incidents.

Cellphone photographs, taxidermy records and statements made during interviews were used to support those allegations.

The charges remain allegations. Ephrem has not been convicted, and the case will proceed through Wyoming's court system.

Campell county pronghorn 4 5 26

<title>'No Permission, Just Shoot': Instagram Videos Lead To Wyoming Poaching Charges | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Washington man faces 14 Wyoming poaching-related charges after Game and Fish investigators say Instagram videos and phone data exposed illegal hunts over more than 10 years. “No permission, just shoot,” the man messaged, Game and Fish says.

'No Permission, Just Shoot': Instagram Videos Lead To Wyoming Poaching Charges

To clear the way for a roughly 43,000-acre Montana logging project, the Trump administration wants to shrink the definition of “secure” grizzly habitat from 2,500 acres down to 1 acre per bear.

Environmental groups are suing to stop it, saying that will ruin vital grizzly habitat corridors and get bears killed by trigger-happy poachers on logging roads.

However, a retired Wyoming forester argues that logging is highly beneficial for grizzlies and black bears.

At issue is the proposed Larabee Hat project in Powell County, Montana; between the Continental Divide headwaters of the Little Blackfoot River and Highway 12 near the town of Elliston.

Over the next 15 to 20 years, the project would entail building 16.8 miles of new roads and 17,696 acres of logging. That would include the commercial clear-cutting 3,210 acres and 706 acres of noncommercial thinning.

There would also be 13,791 acres of intentional burning as part of the proposed forest management plan.

Shrinking the definition of “secure habitat” for grizzlies would clear the way for road construction and other activities, according to a coalition of environmental groups suing to stop it.

Research indicates that a female grizzly with cubs needs roughly 2,000 to 2,500 acres of secure habitat, at least 1/3 of a mile away from any roads, because “most grizzlies are killed within one-third mile of roads.” That’s according to the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, one of the groups behind the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court against the Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

‘Grizzly Bears Thrive In Disturbed Environments’

Retired forester Karl Brauneis of Lander told Cowboy State Daily that as he sees it, claims that logging will ruin bear habitat are hyperbolic.

He said that during his career with the Forest Service, he saw the opposite.

“It’s actually very beneficial to grizzly bears to harvest timber,” he said. “Grizzly bears thrive in disturbed environments.”

Black bears benefit too, he said, because bears are “opportunistic omnivores.”

Clear-cutting timber can boost renewed growth of wild berries, which bears love, Brauneis said.

And “the rodent population just booms,” providing another food source for bears, he added.

Brauneis stated his arguments for the economic and habitat benefits of logging in an article he wrote for 

He stated the “environmentalists and single-species management biologists” got it wrong when they claimed that grizzlies can’t survive without vast swaths of land undisturbed by human activity.

Grizzlies now frequent settled or busy areas, such as Togwotee Pass, he stated in the article.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bears Get Shot From Roads"}]

Alliance for the Wild Rockies spokesman Mike Garrity told Cowboy State Daily that the Larabee Hat project isn’t the first attempt at shrinking the definition of secure bear habitat for logging projects.

It’s been previously attempted on national forests in Montana and met with legal challenges, he said.

If the Larabee Hat project gets the green light, it could set a bad precedent that could threaten grizzlies across the northern Rockies, he said.

More logging roads means less habitat for grizzlies, Garrity said.

“Female grizzlies will avoid roads and they will train their cubs to avoid them too,” he said.

Also, grizzlies are frequently illegally shot from roads, he added.

“It’s a crime of opportunity,” Garrity said.

“The killings are documented. Some of them are prosecuted, but not all of them are,” he said.

In a statement from the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Garrity argued that the Larabee Hat project would also threaten a grizzly habitat corridor connecting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem.

"If that corridor is seriously degraded, which this project will do, it will prevent genetic exchange between the bears in those two isolated ecosystems leading to irreversible inbreeding,” he stated.

Mix Collage 05 Jun 2026 03 44 PM 8240

<title>Trump Support For Logging Project Will Get Grizzly Bears Killed, Green Groups Say | Cowboy State Daily</title>

To clear the way for a Montana logging project, the Trump administration wants to redefine secure grizzly habitat from 2,500 acres to 1 acre. Opponents say it will get bears killed but a retired Wyoming forester says logging is good for grizzlies.

Trump Support For Logging Project Will Get Grizzly Bears Killed, Green Groups Say

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

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.

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.

Daily Darwin: Monday, May 11, 2026

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