MAY 7 Wyoming News Briefs

Student falls from Buffalo Bill Dam

CODY (WNE) — A 13-year-old Cody Middle School student fell to his death in an apparent suicide, according to the Park County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies are still investigating the incident.

According to an office spokesman, the male victim was visiting the Buffalo Bill Dam Visitor’s Center with his family when he climbed up onto the railing on the east side of the dam and leaped some 350 feet into the Shoshone River.

The initial call came into the sheriff’s dispatch at 4:26 p.m. Deputies responded immediately as did an ambulance from Cody Regional Health. The victim’s body was eventually found by members of the Park County Search and Rescue Swift Water Team at the base of the dam in approximately 8 feet of water. The body was removed at 7 p.m. and turned over to Park County Coroner Tim Power.

Cody School District Superintendent Ray Schulte said the district has several counselors to assist students during challenging times.

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Woman dies in rollover crash

LARAMIE (WNE) — The Wyoming Highway Patrol responded to a fatal car crash early Sunday morning east of Laramie.

Around 2:30 a.m., the Highway Patrol was dispatched to milepost 30 on Wyoming Highway 210 for a one-vehicle rollover.

The driver, 20-year-old Seraphina Jimenez, “was not wearing her seatbelt properly” and died at the scene of the crash from the injuries she sustained, according to a news release.

The Cheyenne resident was driving a 2009 Toyota Corolla eastbound on Wyoming 210 when the vehicle drifted to the right side of the road. Jimenez then overcorrected the Corolla back to the left before driving “off the left shoulder and overturning,” the release said.

Driver inattention and cellphone use are being investigated as potential contributing factors for the fatal crash.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol reported this as the 54th fatality on Wyoming’s roadways so far this year, compared to just 27 by this time last year.

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Four charged in home invasion, assault

RIVERTON (WNE) — Four individuals are facing District Court charges of conspiracy to commit unlawful entry into an occupied structure, after accusations that they broke into a residence on East Monroe in Riverton and beat three of its occupants on March 19.

Troy Thomas Fasthorse, Kym Aldos Fasthorse, Guy Fabian Soundingsides, and Samuel Francis White-plume had their conjoined case bound over to the higher court. Each could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

The court affidavit states that at 3 a.m. Tuesday, March 19, a Fremont County Sheriff's deputy was dispatched to the Riverton residence to respond to a report of unlawful entry.

When the deputy arrived, the four subjects had fled. The former made contact with one of the occupants of the house, who said that he had been sleeping on a couch in the living room when Thomas Fasthorse entered and began hitting him in the head and face.

The alleged victim said Thomas and Kym Fasthorse, Soundingsides and Whiteplume then went down the hallway to where a second occupant had been sleeping.

When interviewed, the second occupant said that when he heard the front door being kicked open, he started to get up but heard people running down the hall to his room, after which he was confronted by the four attackers.

The victim said they began assaulting him by hitting him with their fists while he was still in bed, then struck him in the head with a glass bottle, a can of skimmed milk, an 18-inch-long board, and possibly a rock.

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Two die in separate crashes near Jackson

JACKSON (WNE) — Sunday brought two fatalities on Highway 26, with deaths in separate crashes near Alpine and on Togwotee Pass.

Avery Rogers, a 34-year-old Jackson man, was driving westbound on Togwotee Pass around 2 p.m. at a “high rate of speed,” Wyoming Highway Patrol Lt. Matt Brackin said. After losing control turning a corner near mile marker 12.5, Rogers overcorrected and rolled into trees on the north side of the highway.

He was wearing a seatbelt, Brackin said, but died at the scene. Patrol officials are investigating speed and alcohol as potential causes of the crash.

There were no witnesses, but other drivers said they had seen Rogers driving fast past them.

Around 6:30 p.m. Sunday, a pack of motorcyclists was headed north from Alpine along Palisades Reservoir. About a mile out of town, as the pack slowed for a vehicle turning right, a 44-year-old Idaho Falls woman named Melinda Gregston hit her brakes too hard, Brackin said.

Her rear brakes locked, and she tipped over and slid, sustaining fatal internal injuries. She died at the scene. Brackin said she was wearing a helmet and that investigators do not suspect alcohol played any role in the crash.

Gregston did not collide with anyone else. Another motorcyclist fell and slid behind her but suffered no significant injuries.