Cold case site now active

Almost 30 years ago, the body of a young woman was found near Colony. She had been shot multiple times.

We know that she was found on June 25, 1996 in a culvert on Hwy 212, about 75 yards from the border. We know that she had been shot multiple times in the head and once in the mouth, and that she may have been sexually assaulted.

We don’t know why she was there or who wanted her dead.

The 19-year-old’s death is one of many unsolved mysteries within the new Wyoming cold case database.

It’s the only crime so far added to the database that took place in Crook County, but it’s one of many statewide that is or will be available for public viewing through the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) website.

The hope of bringing together cold case information in once place for public viewing is that, for each case, someone out there will have the tip that’s needed to solve it.

The database contains all the information that’s publicly available about each crime, including maps and photographs. It does not include sensitive data such as suspect names or, in the case of sexual assault crimes, the name of the victim.

According to the legislation that authorized the database, a “cold case” is a homicide or felony sexual offense that occurred after January, 1972 and remains unsolved for at least two years after it was reported.

The legislature authorized the development of a database to house all cases that fall under this definition at its session earlier this year. HB-29 directed DCI to develop and maintain the database and all law enforcement agencies in Wyoming to provide information on any cold cases they may have for inclusion.

The bill appropriated $150,000 for the development.

So far, the oldest case in the database is from 1974: the homicide and sexual assault of a ten-year-old girl who went missing from the fairgrounds in Carbon County.

The most recent is Dustin Scott Bruegger, a 24-year-old who was shot at his apartment in Douglas in 2018.

The database can be searched in a number of ways, from the data of the crime to the name of the victim, the location or the weapon used.

DCI is now urging anyone who might have information on any of the cold cases in the database to contact either DCI or the law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction where the crime took place.