Posted: Tuesday, July 1, 2008 12:00 am
Teams continue search for man
PINEDALE - Volunteers continued searching around the Big Sandy area of Sublette County over the weekend and Monday for 24-year-old Garrett Bardin of Pinedale, who was reported missing by his family a week ago.
Sublette County Sheriff's Office public information officer Dick Blust Jr. said Monday a number of purported sightings of Bardin - all unconfirmed and many anonymous - have been received by the sheriff's office in recent days. He said none so far have produced "tangible results."
Bardin is the son of Sublette County Sheriff Wayne Bardin. The younger Bardin was last seen June 21 driving a silver Lincoln pickup.
The pickup was found by sheriff's deputies at the end of a two-track road about two miles from the old Dutch Joe Guard Station in the Wind River Mountains, about 35 miles southeast of Pinedale.
Blust said the search by the county and volunteers of Tip Top Search and Rescue has employed a variety of strategies, including the use of scent dogs, all-terrain vehicles, and a helicopter. He said volunteers also conducted a "shoulder-to-shoulder" search for over a mile radius from where Bardin's pickup truck was found.
Blust said the presence of about 3,500 people from the Rainbow Family gathering near the Big Sandy Ranch area was "complicating" the search for Bardin.
Officials catch bear near Gillette
GILLETTE - Gillette isn't known as bear country, but a black bear was relocated after it was spotted along Interstate 90 just six miles from town.
The bear was heading toward a subdivision. That raised concerns, so the Wyoming Game and Fish Department was called to the scene Saturday morning.
Sheriff's deputies tried to corral the bear with trucks, but the bear evaded them by climbing a utility pole. State wildlife biologist Heather O'Brien then shot the bear with a tranquilizer dart, but the bear balanced himself on the pole and wouldn't come down.
Finally a sheriff's deputy fired a nonlethal bean-bag round at the bear and got him to come down. The bear was knocked out with another tranquilizer dart and taken to a remote area.
The bear was a male that was about 3 years old and 5 feet tall. Biologists say he was in great condition and probably came from the Big Horn Mountains.
County settles lawsuit with family
GILLETTE - A wrongful death suit involving two Campbell County nurses and an emergency medical technician has been dropped as part of a $115,000 settlement.
The family of Mary Terese Green had sued two nurses who treated Green at the Campbell County jail and an EMT who examined Green before she was taken to jail.
Green, 51, died in January 2005 of carbon monoxide poisoning, several days after being arrested on suspicion of setting fire to her mobile home in Wright. The lawsuit contended Green did not receive proper medical treatment in the jail.
The settlement was reached May 23 and paid to Green's four siblings and her daughter.