Missing persons top news stories for 2023

Sunday we say goodbye to 2023 and on Monday we welcome in a new year, 2024.

As usual we are ending the year with a look at the 2023 in review, highlighting some of our top stories for the year and while 2023 had many interesting and noteworthy moments, were top 2 stories for 2023 was the weather and missing persons.

In the spring of this year, Patrick Combs family finally had closure after the Idaho man’s remains were found in the Honeycomb Wilderness Area east of Worland. Combs had been missing since 2015. Initial searches in the Worland area were conducted in 2017 when his pickup was found in the Honeycomb area. Until then law enforcement did not know that Combs had been in the area.

In May, two local residents out looking for cattle came across Combs’ skull and a more extensive search found more remains and his wallet.

The family finally had closure for their missing loved one.

Two months later, multiple searches were conducted for a missing Worland woman, Breanna Chelsey Mitchell. Mitchell, now 29, went missing when she was 28, on July 22, 2023. She is still missing after extensive searches throughout the summer including blood hounds and cadaver dogs and a company from Cody using drones and dogs. A pond was drained as well where some of the dogs had indicated.

Mitchell is 5-5, 130 pounds with green eyes and brown hair. Breanna has tattoos of a heart with angel wings, the DNA symbol with mushrooms on her abdomen, broken heart with a crown and wings on her right ankle, “Hailee” on her left forearm, 11:11 on the back of her neck, “I believe” on her right thigh and a sleeve of roses on her left arm.

Sheriff Austin Brookwell said in an interview in July that Mitchell was first reported missing by her boyfriend, who told the Sheriff’s Office he received a text at 2 a.m. on July 22 that her vehicle, a black Ford Expedition, had gotten stuck in the Nowater area. The boyfriend said he looked all day for her but could not find her. Brookwell said he has continued to assist in searching for her. “We do not know why she was out there other than she would go out there for fun,” Brookwell said. Brookwell said in addition to the searches, deputies are also conducting interviews and following leads and rumors. “We are treating this more than must a missing person, just because we do not know exactly what happened yet.”

The Sheriff’s Office consulted with the FBI who reviewed the timeline and other evidence. They have pinged her cell phone; and despite many rumors, the sheriff said the boyfriend has been cooperative and done everything asked of him.

Her family continues to share her missing person poster on social media and making pleas for anyone who many know anything as to Breanna’s whereabouts to contact the Washakie County Sheriff’s Office at 347-2242.

The hope is that 2024 will bring Breanna’s family the news they are longing to hear.

Two other missing persons with local ties also made news in 2023. John Hammond of Thermopolis had gone to Carbon County with friends. The friends returned home without him. He was officially listed as missing on Nov. 11, 2021. Remains were found in May in the Pedro Mountains and in July they were confirmed to be that of John Hammond.

Also in July, two Wyoming Boys’ School juveniles ran away from the school southwest of Worland. One juvenile was caught fairly quickly. The search for the other is still ongoing. In the words of Wyoming Boys’ School Superintendent Dale Weber, in an interview with the Northern Wyoming News, “The second student was able to evade staff and the significant subsequent search for him was unsuccessful.”

The No. 2 story of the year was weather, from extreme cold in January (not as cold as in December 2022), which brought some record cold temperatures, to record moisture in the spring and summer.

The summer also brought some mild summer temperatures.

As we reported in early July, Worland broke a record set in 2019 by nearly two weeks. According to the National Weather Service the record for the number of days without hitting 90 degrees for the year was most recently set on June 29, 2019. Worland crushed that record with the first 90-degree day coming Monday, July 10. This is for data starting in 1960 from the official weather station at the Worland Municipal Airport.

According to the NWS Riverton office, the normal average temperature for Worland at this point in the year is 41.4. This year’s average is 37.9, a departure of 3.5 degrees.

According to NWS data, the average high temperature in June was 70-degrees with the normal high average 90 degrees. Worland has received 4.72 inches of moisture for the year with 3.34 inches coming in June. The 4.72 inches is .28 inches above normal.

Last year, Worland saw 3.89 inches through the first six months of 2022. Along with setting the record for longest time to 90 degrees, Worland set a number of rainfall records in June. On June 23 of .37 inches on that day, breaking the old record of .33 inches set in 1967.

Another record was set on June 20 with .14 inches, breaking a record set in 2004 of .11 inches, another on June 16 when .78 inches of rain fell, breaking the old record of .67 in 1990.