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Wyoming Cold Cases

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Wyoming Murders

Numerous law enforcement websites provide fascinating facts and statistics about the quantity of murders in Wyoming by year. Year after year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation compiles and releases a comprehensive uniform crime report that includes extensive knowledge regarding the various types of crimes, crime rates, as well as crime locations inside the majority of counties and cities across the country. Another notable example is Project: Cold Case, which not only keeps a public dataset of around 25,000 unresolved cases, but also offers statistics and other information on the number of unsolved murders in each state, along with the murder clearance rate for each state.Based on various statistics provided by The Murder Accountability Project in collaboration with Project: Cold Case, there were approximately 972 murders in Wyoming between 1980 and 2019, which may be seen on their Cold Case Homicide Statistics webpage. Moreover, 137 of the murders in Wyoming remain unsolved today, despite the fact that 836 of the original estimate were resolved during that time period.

Susie Weaver’s 1982 murder and Mary Virginia Webb’s 1996 murder, Jackie Lee McLean’s 1990 murder, Amanda Dawn Gallion’s 1997 abduction, and Stuart Isaac’s 2010 disappearance are just a few of the unsolved northern Wyoming murders. The 1984 murder of Jon Rice, the 2018 murder of Dustin Bruegger, the 1999 murder of Larry Peterson, and the 2001 murder of Daniel “”Danny”” Moser, as well as the 1974 disappearance of Larry Marvin Morris and the 1984 disappearance of Sharon BaldEagle, are among the unsolved central Wyoming murders. Unsolved murders in Cheyenne, Wyoming include the 2003 murder of Shawny Smith and the 1987 murder of Everitt Syferd, as well as a few more recent disappearances, including the 2019 disappearance of John Emory Hoff and the 2018 disappearance of Ahnalise Michelle Schulz. Finally, some unresolved homicides in Laramie County, Wyoming, including the 2001 murder of James Kamai and the 1985 murder of Shelli Wiley, as well as Eduardo Michelena’s disappearance in 2018.


Unsolved Wyoming Murders

As previously stated, murder statistics can be found on the websites of various police agencies, and on the Project: Cold Case website, you can also get a comprehensive breakdown of the number of unsolved homicides for each state, and the homicide clearance rate for each state. To conclude, Wyoming now has around 137 unsolved murders, a figure that is slowly reducing as law enforcement agencies continue to investigate unsolved deaths. The websites of different local and general law enforcement agencies provide information on the vast majority, if not all, of Wyoming’s unsolved homicides.

The 1982 murder of Susie Weaver and the 1996 murder of Mary Virginia Webb, the 1990 murder of Jackie Lee McLean, the 1997 disappearance of Amanda Dawn Gallion, and the 2010 disappearance of Stuart Isaac are just a few of the many unsolved northern Wyoming murders and disappearances that are listed on various law enforcement websites. Unsolved murders in Cheyenne, Wyoming, including Shawny Smith’s murder in 2003 and Everitt Syferd’s murder in 1987, as well as a handful more recent disappearances, including John Emory Hoff’s disappearance in 2019 and Ahnalise Michelle Schulz’s disappearance in 2018. The numerous unsolved murders in east Wyoming are included on the list of unsolved murders in Wyoming. Charles Norton was murdered in 1979, Stella Ellen McClean was murdered in 1978, Camilo Moreno was murdered in 2000, and Katherine Coffe was murdered in 2011.


Joseph Smedley
Joseph SmedleySuspicious Death, 2015
Asha Degree
Asha DegreeMissing, 2000

Consider this

More than 200,000 unsolved cases have gone cold since 1980, and murder clearance rates continue to drop. With equity for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other underserved victims not prioritized in the true crime community—together we can do better.

Famous Wyoming Murders

Even though there may not be that many names that come to mind when it comes to famous Wyoming murders, the majority of the names on the law enforcement webpages’ lists of Wyoming murders are obscure, although a few names on the list of all Wyoming murders and notorious Wyoming criminals are well-known. The 2001 murder of James Kamai, the 2003 murder of Shawny Smith, the 2011 murder of Katherine Coffe, the 2000 murder of Camilo Moreno, and the 1996 murder of Mary Virginia Webb are among the most well-known Wyoming homicides. In addition to these well-known unsolved killings, Wyoming has a number of unresolved disappearances, including Kristi Lynn Richardson’s disappearance in 2014, Stuart Isaac’s disappearance in 2010, Amy Wroe Bechtel’s disappearance in 1997, and Saphron Diehl-disappearance Power’s in 2015.


Homicide Rate in Wyoming

According to the 2019 Uniform Crime Report (UCR) from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the violent crime rate in Wyoming was about 217.4 per 100,000 people. In other words, about 217 people per 100,000 people in Wyoming were directly affected by violent crime in 2019. According to the same study, the homicide rate in Wyoming in 2019 was 2.2 per 100,000 population, indicating that roughly 2 persons per 100,000 people were murdered in Wyoming.

Cheyenne, Wyoming’s capital, now boasts a populace of over 65,000 people. In 2018, the violent crime rate in Cheyenne, Wyoming was around 322.54 per 100,000 inhabitants, while the Cheyenne, Wyoming murders rate was approximately 3.12 per 100,000 persons. Although there is no way to predict how many murders in Wyoming in 2021 along with how many murders in Cheyenne, Wyoming 2021, we do know that based on archival records, the murder rate and violent crime rate in both appears to be growing year after year.


Laramie County Murders

Laramie County, Wyoming has a population with over 100,000 individuals. Even though we don’t know how many homicides happened in Laramie County in past years, we do know that no murders happened in 2015, three murders transpired in 2016, three murders occurred in 2017, and no murders occurred in 2018. Judging by these statistics, it appears that the number of homicides in Laramie County each year is dropping, but that it has been generally steady over time.

Detectives may be able to muster enough evidence from Laramie County murders to arrest somebody for murder before they can finally bring them to a Laramie County murder trial in certain circumstances. The type of evidence used in Laramie County homicide trials is totally dependent on the offense. Hair, blood, or other DNA evidence, cell phone pings, gunshot residue, and most notably, crime scene photos from murders in Laramie Countyare used to illustrate the jurors the atmosphere around the crime as well as the possible brutality of the crime.


Cheyenne, Wyoming Murders

Cheyenne, Wyoming murders appear to be a little less prevalent than in other large towns in Wyoming, due to the size of it’s population. Almost all of the recent and long-ago murders in Cheyenne, Wyoming have already been solved, and authorities continue looking into the unresolved cases. Cheyenne murders discussion will relentlessly persist on social media networks such as Facebook, Reddit, and Websleuths until cases are solved, in which people speculate and start sharing details about Cheyenne murders pictures, Cheyenne murders crime scene photos, and Cheyenne, Wyoming murders autopsy photos, which are rarely released even after an investigation concludes.

In the past few years, DNA technology has been developed, leading to the resolution of hundreds, if not thousands, of decades-old unsolved crimes, and Wyoming is no exception. Some of the numerous examples where Cheyenne murders DNA, as well as DNA from crimes in other regions of Wyoming, was utilized to solve or offer new information to cold cases include the killings of “Bitter Creek Betty” Jane Doe and “I-90 Jane Doe,” both of whom remain unidentified.


Wyoming Serial Killers

Serial killers may catch your attention if you enjoy true crime. If you’ve ever gone through some type of serial killer list, you’ve almost definitely came across one of Wyoming’s serial killers. While there aren’t as many Wyoming killers as one could assume, they do make an appearance on lists of serial killers in Wyoming on a regular basis. These lists include some of the most infamous serial killers, such as Rodney Alcala, also known as the “Dating Game Killer”, who murdered an estimation of up to 130 people as well as Charles Starkweather, who killed 11 poeple from December 1957-January 1958 in Nebraska and Wyoming.


Crimes in Wyoming

If you’re interested in learning more about the current statistics and data for crimes in Wyoming, several law enforcement organizations provide annual reports on their websites that detail the offenses throughout the state. Every year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation distributes a Uniform Crime Report that details crimes, crime rates, and crime sites in each and every state, including a report on crime in Wyoming.

Unfortunately, it appears that the number of Wyoming homicide and true crime stories in Wyoming will never end, but there is hope after viewing the homicide statistics on Project: Cold Case’s website. As per Project: Cold Case, there were about 972 murders in Wyoming between 1980 and 2019. Over the years, about 835 of those killings have been solved, leaving approximately 137 unsolved murders in Wyoming alone. Notwithstanding this, Wyoming’s numerous law enforcement agencies will never stop working to solve all of the Wyoming’s true crimes.


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