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Wyoming Obituaries For June 18, 2026

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Wyoming Obituaries For June 7, 2026

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

It’s easy for most people to avoid committing crimes while visiting Yellowstone National Park.

For anyone willing to push their luck, it’s just as easy to get caught in an act. One photo could lead to $2,000 in fines and a week in jail. 

Dane Eyerly of Highland, Utah, was visiting Yellowstone with his family when he spotted someone trying to get a better selfie. The problem was that they did so by stepping onto the fragile terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs.

If that person knew they’d been caught on camera committing a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by fines or a week in jail, maybe they’d have stayed on the boardwalk.

 in a Thursday post, adding that he had informed Yellowstone rangers of the incident.

Cowboy State Daily was unable to reach Dane Eyerly by the time of publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Thermal Trespass"}]

“Foot travel in all thermal areas and within the Yellowstone Canyon between the Upper Falls and Inspiration Point must be confined to boardwalks or trails that are maintained for such travel and are marked by official signs.”

 according to the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, Title 36, Section 7.13, specifically regarding Yellowstone National Park. Violating that statute can and has been 

All the signs and boardwalks throughout Yellowstone are designed to ensure nobody violates that rule. It ensures they protect themselves and the delicate landscape, as one wrong step can lead to serious injury or death.

do so anyway in the pursuit of better selfies — 

Earlier this year, Eric Bedient, 50, was 

for walking directly across Canary Spring, Mound Terrace, Palette Hot Spring, and Jupiter Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs in November 2025.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming said Bedient’s sentence “reflected the extensive nature of the violation (and) the damage his footprints left behind.” He left behind several footprints that were as deep as 12 centimeters.

“Yellowstone’s thermal areas are among the most dangerous natural features in the world,” said U.S. Attorney Darin Smith in a statement. “Mr. Bedient’s disregard for the law could have cost him his life. 

"Prosecuting crimes like this deters others from similar conduct — and from risking becoming thermal soup.”

Mammoth Hot Springs has been frequently cited as an especially fragile thermal area. Any damage may be evident for months or years after the incident, unless it’s permanent.

“Foot traffic can easily destroy very fragile carbonate terrace structures,” Jeffrey Hungerford, Yellowstone’s geologist, wrote in a report assessing the damage caused by Bedient. “Recently formed structures (less than a year old) are very fragile and unstable. 

"They cannot withstand the weight of a human without failing or breaking. It may take years for hydrothermal waters to flow over and rebuild terrace structures in Mammoth.”

Mammoth Hot Springs was the same spot where Eyerly saw the selfie seeker stepping off the boardwalk.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Crime And Punishment"}]

, Washington resident Viktor Pyshniuk was sentenced to seven days in jail and 

 $1,500 in fines after leaving the boardwalk at Steamboat Geyser for “better photos.” A ranger found him standing within 20 feet of the geyser’s steam vent.

Pyshniuk was also placed on two years of unsupervised release and was banned from visiting Yellowstone for the same duration.

, James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan pleaded guilty to foot travel in a thermal area. He also stepped off the boardwalk at Mammoth Hot Springs to pose for a photo standing on Palette Springs.

Brosnan agreed to pay a $5,000 fine and two years of unsupervised probation. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephanie A. Hambrick reduced the sentence to a $1,500 fine and no probation, citing his remorse and frequent public apologies.

“Mr. Brosnan isn’t proud of himself,” she said during his sentencing hearing. “We’ve seen his remorse. It’s genuine.”

Aaron E. Merritt wasn’t so fortunate. He 

 after pleading guilty to thermal trespass in July 2021.

The previous summer, Merritt ran up to Old Faithful with an American flag and a raccoon skin hat. He was also banned from visiting Yellowstone as a condition of his sentence, though the duration wasn’t specified.

Despite the desire for thermal trespass sentences to deter others from doing the same, none of the recent sentences have exceeded seven days in jail and/or $2,000 in fines.

“I don't know if jail actually gets through to their heads, but the dollar bill does,” Cody resident and photographer Tara Posey 

. “When you hit their pocketbook, it seems to register with them, and I don't think they put enough of a fine on these people for doing this stuff. The fines need to be way stiffer.”

Selfie Yellowstone Thermal 726294997 10165331862846757 1165246136924944896 n 6 18 26

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

<title>'Don't Be This Guy': Yellowstone Selfie Seeker Steps Illegally Onto Hot Spring | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A man in Yellowstone was caught stepping illegally onto a fragile hot spring could get jail time and a hefty fine when park rangers catch up to him. “Don’t be this guy,” said a visitor who posted a photo of the offender on Thursday.

'Don't Be This Guy': Yellowstone Selfie Seeker Steps Illegally Onto Hot Spring

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

CHEYENNE — A jury trial remains scheduled to start in less than two months for a 14-year-old charged as an adult with first-degree murder, accused of shooting his mother in the head after an argument over a stolen electronic tablet.

Laramie County Sheriff’s Office investigators say Havoc Leone admitted to shooting his mother, 41-year-old Theresa McIntosh, after she had called him “retarded” and a “thief” on March 6.

If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. The death penalty isn’t an option in this case because of Leone’s age.

, one of Leone’s attorneys outlined an alleged pattern of emotional abuse that may have driven the teen to act out.

Leone is an emotionally vulnerable child who had been subjected to a pattern of degrading treatment by a mentally ill mother, argued defense attorney Jonathan Foreman.

“If I called you ‘retarded,’ would you believe it?” Foreman asked Laramie County Sheriff’s Office Detective Miles DePrimo, who testified about the details of the case during the March 18 preliminary hearing.

Those details included Leone admitting to hating his mother and shooting her.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"DePrimo answered, “No.”"}]

“Would a child who had been hearing that his whole childhood start to question that?” Foreman followed up.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“Maybe,” the detective answered."}]

“Ms. McIntosh, who was mentally ill … regularly called him ‘retarded,’ pulled his hair,” and slapped him, said Foreman.

Conversely, Laramie County Assistant District Attorney Kelly Strickland argued that Leone expressed a long-simmering hatred for his mother, had thoughts about killing her, and then followed through when presented an opportunity.

“Right before pulling the trigger on the gun, Theresa yelled at him again if he was ‘retarded,’” Strickland said, recounting an interview Leone had with an investigator. “He said, ‘Yes mom,’ and pulled the trigger.”

 to the first-degree murder charge, setting up a jury trial scheduled to begin Aug. 10.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Argument"}]

McIntosh was still alive when sheriff’s deputies arrived at their house, summoned by a 911 call from his father, who heard the shot while he was playing video games in the basement of their home, according to DePrimo’s court testimony and an affidavit of probable cause he wrote and filed in the case.

After Leone, his mother, and father argued about the electronic tablet he allegedly stole from a client of his mother’s cleaning business, they all went their separate ways in their three-level home just south of the Cheyenne city limits, according to DePrimo’s affidavit.

The father went into the basement to play video games, McIntosh was upstairs in Leone’s room doing a puzzle on the floor, while Leone was at the kitchen table doing homework.

At some point, Leone went up to his room where McIntosh was, and they began arguing again, DePrimo wrote.

A gun the teen stole from his mother’s car the week prior, a Taurus 9mm pistol, had been stashed in a boot in Leone’s closet, the detective wrote. 

At one point during their argument, Leone went to the closet to retrieve a notebook that supposedly had a password to access the stolen tablet, the affidavit says. Leone also pulled the gun out of the boot and held it by his side to hide it from McIntosh.

With McIntosh sitting back on her knees on the floor, Leone told detectives that he tossed the notebook at her, which forced the woman to lean forward away from him, exposing the back of her head, DePrimo testified at the preliminary hearing.

“As she knelt forward, he revealed the gun and shot her,” he said, adding that being called “retarded” seemed to be a trigger for the teen.

“By tossing that notebook, he put her in a position to be shot in the back of the head?” Strickland asked, to which DePrimo answered in the affirmative.

McIntosh was shot once in the head behind her left ear, he added.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What Dad Heard And Saw"}]

Leone’s father heard the gunshot from the basement and went upstairs to see what had happened. There, he encountered his son outside the bedroom, DePrimo wrote.

When he asked the teen what happened, the father told detectives Leone answered, “I don’t know, it just went off,” DePrimo said.

Leone himself at first told detectives that McIntosh had the gun and handed it to him, the detective testified. During that act, he said that “his finger slipped” and the gun fired.

Later, he told another detective the account involving getting the gun out of the boot.

Leone also said that “he had thought about killing Theresa then” at the time he stole the gun from his mother’s car, “but he didn’t,” DePrimo testified.

“He didn’t like to be called names and didn’t know how to express his anger and hatred to her,” he added.

When cross-examined by Foreman, DePrimo admitted that while Leone was asked about his negative feelings toward his mother, he wasn’t asked about the opposite.

“Did you ever ask him if he loved his mother?” Foreman asked. “Are you familiar with the term ‘love-hate relationship?’”

Foreman also explored the initial report to 911 by McIntosh’s common-law husband that she may have tried to kill herself.

“But the initial assumption by her husband was that she killed herself, is that right?” he asked, to which DePrimo answered he didn’t know.

Leone remains at the Laramie County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond.

Havoc Leones house and Theresa Mc Intosh 3 18 26

<title>Cheyenne 14-Year-Old Charged As Adult In Mom’s Shooting Set For Trial | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Cheyenne 14-year-old charged as an adult with first-degree murder in the death of his mother is set for a jury trial in less than two months. His defense claims he was emotionally abused, while investigators say he admitted he hated his mother.

Cheyenne 14-Year-Old Charged As Adult In Mom’s Shooting Set For Trial

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Two people died Wednesday after a two-vehicle crash unfolded in front of Riverton’s Walmart, drawing passersby from both sides of the city’s busiest road, North Federal Boulevard.

[{"type":"text","text":"The crash was reported around 8:15 p.m."}]

A white Dodge pickup with a crunched hood sat on its side in the middle of the road, while the mangled remains of what witnesses said had been a black Jeep sat upright nearly a half-block south of the pickup, on the northbound lane of the road.

Police, emergency medical personnel and the Riverton Volunteer Fire Department converged. People on the scene pulled one man out of the pickup. The man was bleeding.

“I asked him what the year was,” said Trent Hallada, who was walking in the area and felt debris, “possibly” hit his eye when the crash happened. “He couldn’t even say the date and year.”

Two more eyewitnesses, who both declined to be identified by name, said the driver of the pickup sat on the ground while personnel responded, but when the response calmed slightly, he tried to run.

Law enforcement officers tackled him and took him into custody, the two witnesses said.

The Fremont County Coroner’s office also responded with a transport truck. One person, who lay in the middle of the road under a tarp and closer to the black vehicle, was placed into the transport truck. Firefighters held red tarps around the person to shield public view.

The Riverton Police Department announced in a Thursday statement that “both occupants of one of the vehicles had serious injuries;” one was pronounced dead one the scene, and the second was taken to SageWest Health Care, “where they succumbed to their injuries.”

The RPD statement doesn’t describe the two different vehicles, calling them “one of the vehicles” and “the other vehicle.” But the statement, coupled with witness interviews, indicates that two people were in the black vehicle, and have both now died.

And the driver of the pickup was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and vehicular homicide, plus other related offenses, the statement indicates when coupled with witness interviews.

RPD concluded its statement with a request for anyone with information on the wreck to call 307-856-4891.

Riverton crash 6 18 26

<title>Two Dead, One Tackled And Arrested in Riverton Crash | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Two people died Wednesday evening after a two-vehicle crash unfolded in front of Riverton’s Walmart. Law enforcement officers tackled a suspect who was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and vehicular homicide.

Two Dead, One Tackled And Arrested in Riverton Crash

Government & Politics

Politics

 In Hot Springs County, the divide in Wyoming’s active Republican political base is actually a chasm.

That breach usually falls between the GOP faction more aligned with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and the faction that tends to oppose it.  

It resurfaced Monday night at the Hot Springs County Republican Central Committee meeting, where precinct committee people and their elected officers gathered to handle regular business.

 delegate, Cheryl Aguiar, made a motion to nearly drain the party’s checking account by sending $4,000 to the Wyoming Republican Party. She didn’t explain the motion to committee leaders at the time.

Her motion failed on a 6-6 tie vote, after which five people, including Aguiar, left the meeting.

People on both sides of the controversy told Cowboy State Daily the voters’ departure left the party short of a quorum and unable to pay its other bills, including to local businesses.

Aguiar said in a Wednesday interview that she made the motion at the request of a large group to protest some members’ efforts last month to “sabotage” the party’s fundraiser dinner by hosting an alternate event on the same night, May 29.

“They literally tried to sabotage – to steal money from our yearly fundraiser; to hold an alternate event to punish the state (party),” Aguiar said. “Why come and punish the county if you’re mad at something the state (party) did?”

Aguiar said that for her part, she left the meeting Monday because the chair was letting attendees heckle and berate her – a claim Chair Joe Martinez disputes.

Multiple critics of Aguiar’s move countered in Tuesday and Wednesday interviews, calling the members’ departure childish.

“I think it’s pretty crappy to walk out on paying the bills for the (gala) that they all held,” precinct committeewoman Shurie Scheel said. “It’s one thing to be mad about it. It’s another to screw over the caterer.”

The party also owes other small businesses money, including the local newspaper, the Independent Record, for advertising, she said.

Scheel said she’s unsure if the local party will have a quorum again before new precinct committee people are sworn in next January, as it’s uncertain if the walkouts – whom she cast as sympathetic to the Wyoming Freedom Caucus wing of the GOP – will return to vote.

Scheel said she and her husband might have to pay the catering business, We Got Your 6 Catering, in the meantime.

[{"type":"text","text":"A Court Case, Two Galas"}]

 Martinez as the local party chair and Scheel’s husband, Phil Scheel, as state committeeman. The judge ruled May 29 that the other people who’d been serving as chair and state committeeman for the past 15 months – Bradyn Harvey and Russell Lewis – were elected in a manner that violated state law.

Monday’s gathering was also the first meeting after the battle of two galas.

The Hot Springs County GOP planned a Charlie Kirk memorial fundraiser dinner for May 29.

Scheel had been organizing the dinner. But she quit planning it to support an alternate “Take Back Wyoming” dinner set for the same evening.

Scheel told Cowboy State Daily she backed the alternate dinner to protest the state Republican Party’s new bylaw declaring a right to donate to or endorse some Republicans over others during the primary election cycle.

State law forbids the GOP and any other major party from taking sides among its own candidates in the primary election. The party is free to back Republicans against Democratic candidates and others in the general election, however. The state party is suing Wyoming over the primary backing ban right now, saying the statute violates the group’s First Amendment rights.  

“Take Back Wyoming: Non-Freedom Caucus Republican Candidates Shop Party,” the banner for the alternate May 29 gala says. “Supporting fair primaries and grassroots conservative values.”

Scheel told Cowboy State Daily she disagrees with the state party’s mission to overturn the state law because primary election day is “the day the voters of the Republican party choose their candidates. The party shouldn’t be choosing the candidates. The voters should.”

: “It shouldn’t be a room full of party insiders who decide who the Republican Party nominee will be, and then tell the voters who to choose. And, the more I thought about it, the more pissed off I got about it.”  

[{"type":"text","text":"So We Carried On"}]

In Aguiar’s telling, Scheel and others answered a state party maneuver with “retaliation” against the county party.

Aguiar said as one voter she doesn’t like the idea of the state party sending money to candidates pre-primary either, though she thinks the party should be able to endorse candidates during that phase.

[{"type":"text","text":"For her, that’s beside the point."}]

“We had to spend – I think there were three of us that spent three solid days calling candidates” to arrange the party, Aguiar said. “We did a good job.”

 U.S. House candidate Steve Friess and Secretary of State Candidate Rachel Williams (also known as state Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams) attended the GOP dinner.

 included a $1,900 bill to the caterer, $146 in advertising and other costs totaling about $2,904.

Martinez attended the Charlie Kirk dinner, which Aguiar said is to his credit. Other than the alleged heckling incident, Aguiar also spoke favorably of Martinez as party chair.

Aguiar said her husband had also run a profitable gun raffle for the party. 

Aguiar concluded that Scheel and the others involved in planning the alternate, protest dinner “don’t care.”

“These people do not care about the Hot Springs County Republican Party,” Aguiar said.

But after the judge’s order – filed the same evening as both dinners – the party leadership changed, and the party tilted toward the group not aligned with the more populist Wyoming Freedom Caucus.

“And for them to get the money that we raised, despite their sabotaging of the alternate event … I did not think it would be in good hands,” Aguiar said.

Aguiar said she and her husband, Bob Aguiar – who is also a Hot Springs County commissioner – left together, and Pam Phillips, to whom they’d given a ride, walked out as well.

She called it incidental that two more committee members, Michele Stevens and Russell Lewis, left the meeting at that time.

[{"type":"text","text":"The ‘Walkout’"}]

Aguiar was adamant that she didn’t make her motion to drain the account because of the judge’s order; she made it on behalf of a bigger group because of the dueling gala incident.

[{"type":"text","text":"Martinez doubts that, he said Wednesday."}]

The Charlie Kirk dinner raised less than $1,500 after expenses, while Aguiar moved to shift $4,000 from the local party’s account to its statewide counterpart.

“I mean, if it was specifically (because of) the Charlie Kirk dinner then that dollar amount should have been consistent with the actual profit,” Martinez said.

Martinez said he doesn’t believe anyone was heckling or verbally abusing Aguiar at the meeting, though the conversation grew “emotional.”

“It was an emotional item,” he recalled. “People wanted to know what the reasons for sending that money to the state were.”

Stevens in a post-publication comment pointed to her family's long battle against "threats and litigation" in the county. The Stevens family has tried for years to operate its tipi camping retreat and met with resistance from neighbors, a former iteration of the Hot Springs County commission, and the courts system. 

Stevens agrees with Aguiar that Martinez failed to maintain decorum, she said. 

"Monday night, when Chairman Joe Martinez let an agitated, packed room shout down Cheryl Aguiar’s motion to send part of the Charlie Kirk dinner proceeds to the state GOP, I didn’t feel safe staying in that room," said Stevens, adding that she believed the bills could still be paid. 

Stevens also criticized Shurie Scheel's change of course on the Charlie Kirk dinner, and Scheel's backing of a competing event. 

"It shouldn’t be overlooked that the Scheels have been at the center of the three most divisive legal fights this county has seen recently," said Stevens, adding allegations against Phil Scheel that have not been charged. 

"I didn’t walk out to dodge the bills," said Stevens. "I called Joe Martinez that same night and offered to reconvene to get every bill paid as soon as possible, and told him directly that walking out had nothing to do with the lawsuit. My only condition is the one I’d ask of any meeting: real order, and a room where people feel safe. I’m told the others plan to come back too."

Lewis told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday that the walkout wasn't coordinated. He said he walked out because of the dueling galas incident - not because of the court's order that removed him from leadership. 

Sherman Skelton, a school board member who attended the meeting as a spectator, said the walkout seemed coordinated.

“I felt very much like those people (should be) there to represent me, our precinct. Not their personal agendas,” said Skelton said. "And it was probably one of the most childish things I’d ever seen in my life."

Shurie Scheel said the walkout appeared “staged," that Aguiar said, "OK, let's go everyone," and they all rose in unison and left. Scheel said that Aguiar acknowledged on her way out that the committee wouldn't have a quorum after they all left.

Aguiar for her part said party members in Scheel's camp merely have "Aguiar derangement syndrome" and that Shurie Scheel is unhappy that Aguiar's husband defeated Shurie's husband in the last County Commission race. 

This Story has been updated to include a post-publication comment by Michele Stevens

Charlie kirk dinner via RRW political facebook page 6 17 26

<title>Hot Springs County GOP Members Walk Out After Failed Vote To Drain Account | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Hot Springs County GOP rejected a party leader's bid Monday to nearly drain its bank account and send $4,000 to the state party. Then five people on the losing side of the question walked out, leaving not enough voters to pay their bills.
 

Hot Springs County GOP Members Walk Out After Failed Vote To Drain Account

Business

Agriculture

There's a big bee emergency in Yellowstone National Park after a semi-truck carrying dozens of beehives crashed Tuesday.

Dalton Broadus of West Yellowstone, Montana, was driving north along U.S. Highway 191 around 9 a.m. Tuesday when he drove past the scene.

Damaged and destroyed beehives were scattered across a quarter-mile stretch of road. Bees were swarming his vehicle, several tow trucks and a Yellowstone ambulance were at the scene, and someone in a beekeeping suit was already assessing the area.

“It happened about an hour before I got there, I believe,” Broadus said.

The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office, Hebgen Basin Fire/EMS, the Montana Department of Transportation, and the Montana Department of Agriculture responded to the scene.

James Peterson, dispatch manager for Eaton Road Solutions, told Cowboy State Daily his company received a call from the National Park Service to recover the flipped semi-truck. He wasn’t sure what caused the accident.

“We brought three recovery trucks and two traffic-control trucks from Idaho Falls,” he said. “It took us about three hours to get it back up.”

Peterson said Eaton’s crews were heading back to the scene Wednesday night to start recovering the damaged hives and, hopefully, the bees that had been residing inside.

“We’ve been working one-on-one with the company (that owns the hives), and they’re trying to save what they can,” he said.

The crews will require bee suits while on the scene. Fortunately, Eaton already had some at the ready.

“We haven’t dealt much with bees,” Peterson said. “This was our second bee call in 15 years, and we still have the beekeeping suits we got for the first call."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bee Catastrophe"}]

After viewing Broadus’s video, Cheyenne venture capitalist and beekeeper Michael Jordan said that, from what he could see, the incident was “a devastating loss” for all involved.

“From the way it looks. I’d think about 40 to 50 percent of what’s there is salvageable, maybe,” he said. “It’s a big dump across a long section, so I’d say they’ve got a three-day ordeal ahead of them.”

According to Jordan, an average honey box can hold between 75,000 and 125,000 bees. Each box costs around $500 and generates $2,000 in profit from honey production.

A semi-truck like the one that crashed can carry 250 to 500 honey boxes, and potentially double that if they’re trying to save space.

[{"type":"text","text":"“There could be up to 1,000 of those boxes in one load,” he said."}]

A semitruck carrying millions of honeybees flipped over on U.S. Highway 191 in Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday. Cheyenne beekeeper Michael Jordan called the scene "a devastating loss" of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the owners of the bees.