Wyoming News Briefs

Two deaths linked to Fentanyl

GILLETTE (WNE) — Fentanyl played a part in two overdose deaths within ten days of each other in December and January.

On Dec. 30, 2021, Dustin Patten, 38 was found by a family member in his apartment in the 700 block of Express Drive, said Campbell County Coroner Paul Wallem.

After an autopsy and a toxicology report, the probable cause of death was determined to be an overdose with a mixture of drugs, including fentanyl and meth, Wallem said.

Less than two weeks later, on Jan. 8, Brady Herdt, 30, was found unresponsive in his home on Monte Vista Lane.

His probable cause of death was a mixed drug overdose, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, Wallem said.

Those bring the total number of fentanyl-related deaths in Campbell County to 12.

In 2019, there were two fentanyl-related deaths. In 2020, there were four, and 2021 had five. And so far in 2022, there’s been one.

Trial set for October in Cody toddler’s death

POWELL (WNE) — With both the prosecution and defense requesting more time to prepare, a judge has set a fall trial date for two Cody residents accused of fatally abusing a toddler. 

Carolyn Aune and Moshe Williams are now set to be tried on Oct. 17 in Park County District Court in Cody. Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Jack Hatfield said there’s “no doubt” it will take a full ten days. 

Williams’ daughter, two-year-old Paisleigh, died in early April 2021. According to prosecutors, medical professionals concluded that the toddler had been dealt a forceful “gut punch” that severed her intestines, and that her caregivers were too slow to seek medical attention. 

Medical records and examinations also indicated that Paisleigh had suffered multiple broken bones and other injuries in the weeks and months ahead of her death. 

The Park County Attorney’s Office charged both Williams and Aune — who was living with Williams along with her own children — with first degree murder, but prosecutors have not said who they believe abused the two-year-old or how she was injured. 

When questioned by police, Williams and Aune each cast suspicion on one another but denied any wrongdoing. Currently, the two defendants are set for a joint trial, but they could request to be tried separately. 

Defense attorneys for the pair have argued that prosecutors must reveal more information about their theory of the case ahead of the trial.

Hatfield said his office had spent the past two weeks going through all the materials in the case. He was supportive of the October trial date. 

Williams and Aune were arrested in April and have been held in the Park County Detention Center since then, with bond set at $1 million.

Woman dies in snowmobile crash

RAWLINS (WNE) — A 64-year-old Casper woman died in late January while snowmobiling on Forest Service Road 225 in Carbon County.

The Carbon County Sheriff’s Office received a call at about 11:45 a.m. Jan. 28 reporting a snowmobile had driven off the trail and hit a tree, according to a CCSO report about the crash. The initial report was that the driver, later identified as Sherry Volker of Casper, was unconscious but breathing.

Deputy Patrick Patterson responded to the scene from Saratoga and was informed that CPR was in progress, the report says. Patterson also requested search and rescue also be paged out because he didn’t have a confirmed location for where Volker was. The request also was to get more people to assist with CPR.

An ambulance from Saratoga and Classic Air Medical were deployed in response to the call and Classic located and followed emergency vehicles to the scene of the crash.

When Patterson arrived, the flight crew from Classic was already evaluating the snowmobile driver, who was placed on a backboard, and multiple volunteers had arrived to help move her from the snow to the road, the CCSO report says. From there, Carbon County Search and Rescue and the flight crew performed advanced lifesaving measures, working on Volker for about an hour before the flight nurse determined there was nothing else they could do to save her.

She was pronounced dead at 1:25 p.m. and family present at the scene was notified of her condition.

Former legislator Christensen dead at 62

JACKSON (WNE) — Leland Christensen, a former state legislator, Teton County commissioner and Alta resident who spent his adult life in public service, died Thursday night.

“Leland was a kind and committed public servant and a good friend who represented the best of Wyoming,” Gov. Mark Gordon said in a statement sent to the Jackson Hole Daily. “I am grateful for his service in the Legislature and as deputy director of the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security. He will be deeply missed.”

Hunter Christensen confirmed his father’s death Friday.

The former legislator caught COVID-19 and was fighting pneumonia and complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and chemotherapy in the ICU. Hunter Christensen said his father was fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and boosted, and died of complications from the medical maladies he was facing. He was 62.

Hunter Christensen said his family welcomes “continued prayers.”

Leland Christensen was a Teton County commissioner from 2005 to 2011, and before that worked in law enforcement for 20 years with the Teton County and Lincoln County sheriff’s offices. The Wyoming native served 15 years with the 19th Special Forces Airborne Army and the National Guard.

In 2011, Christensen began an eight-year stint as a Republican state senator in the Wyoming Legislature. In 2019, Gordon appointed him to the post of deputy director of Homeland Security, and in 2021, he began working for U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis as her state director.