News briefs from around Wyoming

From Wyoming News Exchange newspapers

Two Park County residents found dead; carbon monoxide poisoning suspected

CODY (WNE) — Two Park County residents, Jeff McKearny, 64, and Steven Werbelow, 66, were found dead in their camper on October 23. The suspected cause of death is accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, according to county coroner Cody Gortmaker.

The two men were hunting near Eagle Creek Campground up the North Fork, which is where their bodies were found. Investigations are still ongoing, Gortmaker said.

Werbelow, who was a Powell resident, was an accomplished taxidermist and well-known in the hunting community.

“I’ve known Steven for about 10 years … he’s done a few taxidermy pieces for my family. He was a world-renowned taxidermist,” said Cord Barton of Cody.

Barton, who had been hunting with Werbelow in the past, said he was hunting in the same area as Werbelow and McKearney when they were found dead.

“I was planning on checking in with him when I finished my hunt,” Barton said.“He was an honest man that loved hunting whitetails and lions.”

According to his Linkedin profile, McKearney, a Cody resident, was a senior pastor at Cody Bible Church, a title he had held since February of 2023.

Services for McKearney will be held at Cody Bible Church at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 2. Plans for Werbelow’s services have not been announced at time of publishing.

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Park County Search and Rescue helps extricate people from wilderness in two incidents

POWELL (WNE) —- Park County Search and Rescue volunteers helped extract two people from the wilderness in separate incidents last weekend.

Early Friday evening, the Park County 911 Center received a 911 call for a 24-year-old male who had sustained a severely broken lower leg while packing out an elk camp, according to a Park County Sheriff’s Office release.

The injured male was located approximately 8 miles up the Deer Creek Trail on the South Fork of the Shoshone River. Park County Search and Rescue, along with Guardian Medical Flight of Cody, were dispatched to the scene.

The Guardian crew was able to drop off a paramedic approximately a quarter of a mile away, who accessed the patient while the helicopter flew back to the trailhead to retrieve more equipment and two PCSAR members to aid in evacuating the subject.

The PCSAR team and Guardian crew were able to haul the injured male back to the remote landing zone. Guardian transported the male to Cody Regional Health where he was treated. His condition is unknown at this time.

Saturday evening at approximately 8:18 p.m., the Park County Communications Center received a 911 call from a solo motorcycle rider who was stranded approximately 2 miles north of the top of McCullough Peaks.

The 73-year-old male was not injured but was unable to get himself and his motorcycle out.

PCSAR responded to the scene using ATVs. Members used a combination of coordinates from the 911 call, night vision equipment and a newly purchased handheld thermal imaging device to locate the man.

He was then transported back to Cody and given a ride home back to Powell.

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94 grams of meth net couple 199 months in prison

LANDER (WNE) —A drug-trafficking scheme that brought methamphetamine and fentanyl from Colorado to Fremont County resulted in a combined 199 months in prison for a pair sentenced in federal court.

Dusty Harris, 42, of Casper, and co-conspirator Thelma Faber, 45, of Greeley, Colo., were arrested after the Wyoming Division of Criminal Apprehension learned last November that Harris funneled drugs to Fremont County and the reservation.

Deputies from the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office then stopped a vehicle driven by Harris in Shoshoni on November 4 and seized 94 grams of methamphetamine and 34 grams of the deadly opioid fentanyl, along with other drugs and paraphernalia.

Investigators seized the pair’s cellphones, which yielded “a multitude of texts and social media messages being exchanged in late October 2023 through early November 2023 between Harris, Faber, and others regarding the distribution of controlled substances,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Harris and Faber were indicted on January 10 and both pleaded guilty on May 9 of this year.

Harris was sentenced to 142 months in prison on July 31; Faber received 57 months’ incarceration at a hearing on October 21, both by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Scott W. Skavdahl.

The case was investigated by the DCI and Fremont County Sheriff’s Office and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy W. Gist.