The Billings Gazette from Billings, Montana • 25

The Billings Gazette WYOMING Sunday. July 30, 1995 7C Laurel movie Ijaus i Mam missing 2 years says he suffered from amnesia pecmenias' Friday-Thnreday 7 9:15 FM 13 Laurml A I ft I li Vh 111 5 7 I Lis Is l.f i I i I K.I.D.5. CO. 50 OFF I Dairy Mat. 1 Nightly All Summer Itemsu 0 aAa 116 North BroaAMy 259-4710 IAaAAaaaaaaaaaaaot DAILY MATiKIFFS AH Seats S3.75 till 5 D.m.

Limited lb Theaters Running Matinees rti 'ir CjT-vW IGift Certificates Available At All Theater rViik Mm l.i e.t.i e.e.i e. 7.1 cfiilA maaaaaaaaaaawmaaaaawmaaaaaaaaaamamwaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmamaammk.m ruicircc JVM-U 73545 (71 NINE MONTHS f-U OoiyMot MgMy 7:3050 home to his fish farm near Clin-tonville, he asked his wife to call him at a motel the next morning to awaken him for the long drive home. There was no answer when she did so, and she called police. Authorities found most of Williamson's belongings in the motel room and the bus parked outside. While there were no signs of a struggle, they treated the disappearance a possible homicide.

Within 24 hours of Reinhard's report that her husband was missing, Williamson's credit cards were found on a grocery store shelf in El Paso, Texas. Two weeks later a car he had rented in Colorado Springs was discovered across the Mexican border in Juarez. Weeks later, a woman traveling by train through the Pacific Northwest reported seeing Williamson. Seizing on the possibility that her husband had lost his memory and was wandering aimlessly, Reinhard launched a one-woman crusade to find him. She traveled to Oregon and Washington state, where Williamson had once been a commercial fisherman.

Pelting the Northwest with "missing" posters, she badgered police and sought media coverage, visited homeless shelters and slept wherever she landed. In early 1994, she persuaded NBC's "Unsolved Mysteries" to do a segment on Williamson. That show was televised May 25, 1994, and eight subsequent times in reruns and syndication, generating more than 100 tips that were investigated by the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. Only recent phone calls by Williamson to Reinhard and an ex-wife in Wisconsin led authorities to the Florida marina where Williamson had worked for the last nine months. "He raked, pulled weeds and ran a boat lift," said Bob Ming, marina assistant manager who hired the cleanshaven Williamson last October.

"I thought he was a very good employee, but toward the end he had a bit of trouble with his head. He said he had been beat up and was lost in the desert for two weeks." Ming said Williamson who introduced himself as Craig Ron Williamson, instead of using his true middle name of Dwight "had a girlfriend, but nothing serious" and quit two weeks ago. He now is a self-employed diver. Williamson, who told Ming of some of his past experiences, nev- er mentioned the Wisconsin fish farm or Reinhard, Ming said. Investigators are not clear on exactly what happened when Williamson disappeared or why he recently phoned his wife.

But Williamson has since told officials that he was beaten severely and awoke in a hospital with a wristband bearing the name Ron. Later he rode buses and trains aimlessly before settling in Key West 18 months ago. Sheriffs Capt. Lou Smit, who helped in the investigation, questions whether Williamson lost his memory. He said the abandoned rental car contained whiskers from Williamson's beard, which lab technicians found had been cut with scissors.

"He probably was changing his appearance," Smit said. Williamson had $2,500 in cash when he disappeared and may have wanted to flee an overwhelming obligation of his new business. The couple had sunk all they owned into the fish farm and had borrowed another $400,000. Investigators also question Williamson's apparent selective memory, noting the phone calls to his wife and ex-wife. They also pointed out that Williamson had no tanks aboard his bus two years ago, no fish food, no coolers, no way of hauling fish back to Wisconsin when he came Colorado.

FIRST KNIGHT M-ISMy MaMy 7:1045 By PAM ZUBECK Cokxado Springs Gazette Telegraph COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. Craig Williamson, a Wisconsin man who disappeared from Colorado Springs two years ago while on a business trip, is alive and living in Key West, Fla. Authorities say Williamson is working as a diver in Florida. He recently told authorities he lost his memory after he was assaulted on Aug. 30, 1993, at a bar or convenience store in Colorado Springs.

El Paso County sheriffs officials are skeptical but are glad to close a case that contained a stream of dead-end leads. But Williamson's version matches a theory promoted by his wife, Christine Reinhard, who drew national media attention to her husband's disappearance. Her nationwide search for Williamson included a segment on the network TV show "Unsolved Mysteries," as well as countless newspaper stories in several states. "I am in no position to talk about it. I am in shock," said Reinhard, who moved from Wisconsin to Cody, after closing the couple's fish farm in 1994.

"We're trying to keep it a private matter until we can resolve some issues," she said. "We're both very fragile right now. Craig is in a very delicate emotional state." While Reinhard declined to talk further about finding her husband, El Paso County sheriffs investigators were relieved to close the case. Their search involved hundreds of hours of work by local and federal agents and cost taxpayers at least $12,000 since Aug. 31, 1993.

Williamson had driven an old school bus to Colorado in late August, intending to buy fish from a fishery near Alamosa. But before he could load his stock, he disappeared. In an Aug. 30 telephone call SPECIES My Mat MoMy UNDER SEIGE 2 ta. ILA.Ul.il l.if.UJ.4..1JUB.f( rw imMw i life itrLm rwimj w7jj no ml snow No ATM Ail IABIVIB POCAHONTAS Daily Mat.

Nightly OPESATION DUMBO DROP Drily Mot MgMy 73035 IN9IAN IN TXI CUPB0AID MKUfM Jj BLUEGRASS SUPERSTAR THE NET Doily Mat Niohlly 7:0540 FREE WILLY 2 Pa.TyMQtl:10-3:10-5:10; MaMy 7:1030 Screening HQecm BRAVEHEART 1 1 Poly Mot lfcOO-330; HoMty fc40-10K)0 WYOMING IN BRIEF WATERWORLD APOLLO 13 "PoiVMot Mohlty 7:0045 i (1(h) i ll ffiiiwiF iC4M ALL SHOWS ALL SEATS $450 ANY $450 TIME Cookeville, Tenn. The cost-of-living index measures differences between areas in the cost of consumer goods and services, excluding taxes and non-consumer expenditures. The study was based on costs of 59 items. Cheyenne was below average in all categories except groceries. The grocery costs came in at about 3.5 percent above average.

Thieves steal heavy stoves WORLAND Authorities are searching for the thieves who stole a 600-pound stove, a 200-pound pot-bellied stove and an old cast-iron bathtub from two historic buildings in Washakie County. "They probably needed two or more people," said Sgt. Roger Brookwell of the Washakie sheriffs department. "I think it would take more than two people to throw a huge stove up into a truck." Brookwell said the thieves were very careful about what they did, prying off the door trim and forcing off the lock and then nailing it back up after they were through. Truck tire marks were also found.

Brookwell said the road near the area is well-traveled and he hopes someone had seen something suspicious. Airport travel down RIVERTON The number of people flying out of Riverton Regional Airport for the first half of this year dropped by 825 people or about 11 percent compared with statistics during the same time last year, according to city officials. But the reduction was not unexpected, according to Airport Manager Harry LaBonde. He noted GP Express pulled out of the airport at the end of March, making fewer seats available to travelers. A total of 6,849 people flew out of the airport between Jan.

1 and June 30 a decrease of 825 from the 7,674 who flew out of the airport in the same period of 1994. Cost of living below average CHEYENNE Cheyenne is 4 percent below the national cost of living, according to a federal study that considered data from 310 areas across the nation. The American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association listed Cheyenne at 4 percent below the national cost of living in its first-quarter 1995 cost-of-living index. Living costs for midmanagement standard of living ranged from more than twice the national average in New York City to about 16 percent below average in TALES OF THE HOOD Doily Mot Mghlty 7:1530 MDftll DA IS I M13 Doily Mol Nighlty 7:2035 1 THE GOOFY MOVIE 1 FRIDAY UOWf mar. nyiwy ntrrv rnruru iricc ALISON KMUSS AND UNION STATION Alberta Bair Theater 8 pm, Aug.

3 Sponsored by KBKD 103.7 Tickets $17, $20. On sale at METRA and ABT, Call 406-256-6052. Poy Mot Nighlly7K)025) DIE HARD 3 Doily Wohlly 7:1050 TOMMY BOY Pl3Dailylj4Wj3Mjjljljy7j3Wj45y mbrrtam mm 1 Dr. Ken Hannen Optometrist 'M UlllMOt -MOKTANA JX i AU6UIT 1, 4, 1 1 1ttj mnemioi 3 SOFT CONTACT LENSES IN AN OPEN AIR CONCERT I 'Includes Exam GLASSES 0 II ism fr- from $4900 0 0 BIFOCAL GLASSES no AUGUST "Limited time offer ISTH nocnY BOI7L 1250 15th St. W.

(REMAX Bldg.) 252-8784 I Accompanied by NORTH AMERICAN I killings Symphony nnnnn Will III-" li OPENING ACTS I The Ghan Romero Binder 17tWAve. AliStars? i- J1 i GATES OPEN AT 5:00 PM special shaped hot air balloons a -Weather Permitting) -i i 1' Brought to you by It f. Sunday. August 6 City Park OUTDOOR MASS A.M. FESTIVAL P.M.

ATHLETIC EVENTS Billings Tele-Communications, Inc. llA TCI COMPANY We're laki ng television tnto tomorrow Saturday. August 5 City Park Admission over PARADE a.m. FESTIVAL -City Park noon DOG TRIALS CALCUTTA -Fairgrounds 7:30 p.m. Call MAG1CTIX 1-80O-366-853O For Concert Tickets Only Adiraace Sales $14.00 'CMld Advance Sales i Day Sliow $18.00 Child -Day of Show FULL CONCESSIONS AVAILABLE NO COOLERS ALLOWED A'l and other covers allowed on back (South) end only! August 5 6, 1995 PRODUCED IN COOPERATION WITH THE JOHNSON COUNTY TOURISM ASSOCIATION.