Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • A1

Casper star-tribune Sunday, november 20, 2016 A1 1 GOING ON NOW! 1858 Coffeen Avenue, Sheridan WY 307-672-3411 Excellent Selection of Powerful Ram Trucks $3.00 Volume 123, Issue 257 A Lee Enterprises Newspaper Copyright 2016 Follow us online: facebook.com/CASTribune Go Pokes! The Grouch HEATHER RICHARDS 307-266-0592, Heather.Richards@trib.com It was, in some ways, a very Western story that played out on the sage-grouse-speckled prai- ries near Wright. A developer had a big dream of a power plant that burned waste coal. Wyoming was the place to make it happen. Mike Ruffatto, the head of North American Power Group of Denver, first proposed the Two Elk Energy Park in 1996. He received enormous support from the locals in Campbell County, public universities and the upper echelons of the state government.

The project appeared prom- ising. It would provide jobs, re- search and income for Wyoming. The company also had big names associated with it, including the son of Sen. Mike Enzi. However, 20 years after it was proposed, the now-defunct Two Elk is nothing but windswept roads and a cement pad.

Its de- veloper is in court for defrauding the federal government out of JENNA VONHOFE, STAR-TRIBUNE a field along Interstate 80, peppered with sagebrush, stretches into the distance on nov. 1 outside Granger. In 1982, a body was found in the field by a farmer. It remained unidentified until 2015, when investigators determined it belonged to Christine Thornton. She had been missing since 1977.

demise leaves questions Few in Wyoming see fiasco as lesson learned Harshman and Bebout to lead state Legislature LAURA HANCOCK 307-266-0581, Laura.Hancock@trib.com Incumbent and newly elected state lawmakers selected Sen. Eli Bebout of Riverton to lead the Wyoming Senate and Rep. Steve Harshman of Casper to head the House. Republicans who will serve in the Legislature next year cau- cused at a Casper hotel Saturday morning to elect their leaders for the next two ses- sions. The 2017 session begins Jan.

10. The GOP has a supermajority in the Wyoming Legislature, and ELISE SCHMELZER 307-266-0574, elise.schmelzer@trib.com Her search ended in a softly lit funeral home chapel. At the end of the aisle, on a long rect- angular table, waited the bones of her sister. The remains lay on a cloth, vaguely arranged in order. A tangle of hair, partially decom- posed, rested near the end.

Here was Christine, the sister Kathy Thornton had been look- ing for most of her life. Mixed with bones were those of her unborn child tiny, unidentifiable pieces of a life that would never be. It was a small miracle among a large hor- ror that so many bones had been recovered after a serial killer left her body on the windswept plains of southwest Wyoming, not to be identified for decades. The funeral home brought in extra people to catch Kathy in case she fainted at the sight of her remains. But Kathy is not the fainting kind.

For 39 years, she looked for her sister. She scoured death records and stitched together YouTube videos asking for information. She visited old addresses. She wrote to the director of the FBI. For 39 years, police depart- ments and government agencies responded: but we help Last month, in that chapel of a Rock Springs funeral home, she found an answer.

She reached out and touched bones. The abstract of a person, of a death, that had always flitted at the edges of life became tangible. are her Kathy, 57, thought to herself. was After the remains were cre- mated, Kathy and her sister, Mary Ann, took the ashes in a small, plain white box to their RV. It was time finally to bring their sister home.

The search Christine was never in one place for long. She befriended everyone with her warmth, and her vibrant presence was impos- sible to ignore, her sisters said. In the summer of 1977, she set out from Texas with her boy- friend to pan for gold in Mon- tana. be back to San An- tonio soon enough, her family thought. Her mother made plans to visit Christine after the baby was born in the early fall.

The hot Texas summer rolled on and the family heard nothing from Christine. Weeks went by, BRINGING CHRIS HOME How a woman solved her 39-year-old murder case JENNA VONHOFE, STAR-TRIBUNE Kathy Thornton sifts through documents she has collected throughout her 39-year search for her sister, Christine Thornton, inside her sister mary rv home on oct. 22 in rawlins. Christine Thornton disappeared during the summer of 1977 after leaving Texas on a road trip with her then-boyfriend to pan for gold in montana. JENNA VONHOFE, STAR-TRIBUNE Sergeant Joe Tomich with the Sweetwater County office holds up a photograph of Christine Thornton taken by serial killer rodney alcala (left) next to a photograph Tomich took in the presumed location (right) on nov.

1 in rock Springs. TWO ELK ENERGY PARK Bebout Harshman ADVISERS C8 CASPER A3 CLASSIFIEDS E1 COMICS F1 ENERGY JOURNAL C1 OBITUARIES B5 OPEN SPACES B1 OPINION A5 PUZZLES E9 SPORTS D1 THEY SERVED B10 WEATHER A2 Hurdles for wind Texas could diversify its energy portfolio with renewables, but Wyoming might struggle to do so. ENERGY JOURNAL, C1 Cowboys comeback Wyoming holds on for dramatic victory over San Diego State. SPORTS, D1 WATCHING WOLVERINES Project takes on greater importance as animals are weighed for placement on endangered list. OPEN SPACES, B1 MOSTLY CLOUDY 50 32 FOreCast, a2 SuNdAY, NOVEmBER 20, 2016 trib.com Please see CHRIS, Page A8 Please see TWO ELK, Page A10 Please see REPuBLICANS, Page A10.