RAWLINS, WY — More than five decades after four girls vanished in Rawlins, the killings tied to the so-called Rawlins Rodeo Murders remain unsolved. Two of the victims, 10-year-old Jaylene Banker and 19-year-old Christine “Christy” Gross, were found dead, while 19-year-old Carlene Brown and 15-year-old Deborah Meyer were never found.
Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken says the cases are still part of his office’s cold-case workload, even as staff try to digitize older files and meet a 2024 state reporting requirement. A retired detective working the case says the missing girls still deserve answers.
How The Case Stalled
The girls disappeared during the summer of 1974, when Rawlins was in the early stages of an energy boom. Brown and Gross attended the Little Britches Rodeo around the Fourth of July, and their van was later found parked at the fairgrounds, according to later reporting cited in the story.
Gross’s remains were discovered nine years later near Sinclair, but Brown has never been found. No suspect has ever been publicly named, and law enforcement has not announced any person of interest in the deaths.
Why Bundy Theory Faded
Some people in the community have long wondered whether Ted Bundy was responsible, but former sheriff Chuck Ogburn said his office checked that possibility and believed Bundy was already in custody in Colorado when the July 1974 disappearances happened. Public records released by the FBI do not line up with that timeline, showing Bundy was not arrested in Utah until August 1975.
Even so, the article says Bundy has not been tied to any Wyoming murders. His known killings stretch across several states, but investigators do not have a Wyoming connection on the record.
A Different Suspect Pattern
Cold case investigator Janet Franson says she believes Royal Russell Long is a stronger fit for the Rawlins case. Long was a long-haul trucker with a violent criminal history, and in 1984 he was convicted of kidnapping two teenage girls in Wyoming after one escaped and another, Sharon Baldeagle, disappeared and remains missing.
Franson points to Long’s habit of targeting pairs and his links to fairs and carnivals. Ryan Cox, who heads cold cases for the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, said Long was considered a suspect but would not discuss other names or evidence.
Search For Family DNA
Franson says the best remaining hope is finding Brown’s remains and locating biological relatives who could provide DNA. Meyer’s DNA is already in a national database, so her identity could be confirmed if her remains are ever recovered.
Bakken recently obtained Brown’s birth certificate, but it listed her adoptive parents rather than her biological family. Franson and the sheriff’s office now hope to find an amended or earlier record, and anyone with information about Brown’s birth family is being asked to contact the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office.
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