Last Tuesday, Jan. 19, the first-degree murder trial of Troy Dean Willoughby, 46, charged with the 1984 shooting death of Elisabeth “Lisa” Miles Ehlers, began in Pinedale’s Ninth District Court with jury selection.

By the end of the day, 12 jurors and two alternates were seated to hear the 25-year-old case.

Throughout the week they would see 25-year-old grisly photos and a video of Lisa Ehlers as she was found around 6 a.m. on June 21, 1984, lying in a pool of blood with gunshot wounds to her head, hand and chest in a turnout on Highway 191 just north of Bondurant, beside the Hoback River.

Jurors would also hear her body was still warm and that her death could have only occurred within 10 minutes or less before she was discovered.

Opening statements

The trial opened Wednesday with opening statements by Sublette County Prosecuting Attorney Lucky McMahon, assisted by special prosecutor Tony Howard, and Wyoming State Defender Todd Oldham, with attorney Kerri Johnson

McMahon started with Ehlers’ last day alive, when she left Jackson around 5:30 a.m. to meet her husband Peter in Panama City, Fla. She was in her silver VW Jetta loaded with belongings and a windsurfer on top.

Two state highway workers noticed Ehlers and her car at a Jackson stoplight and saw it again at a Bondurant pullout about 30 miles away, still running, with Ehlers beaten, shot twice and lying on the ground dead, she said.

“Every piece of testimony, every witness will be like a piece of a puzzle,” McMahon said of the case against Willoughby. “We don’t always know every detail…”

She compared it to a 500-piece puzzle of the Mona Lisa, asking how many pieces had to be placed “before you know it’s the Mona Lisa?”

McMahon said not many witnesses could remember what they knew 25 years ago. And in 1984, DNA was not a forensic tool; fingerprints at the scene weren’t identified; trace evidence was “in its infancy,” she said. A blanket was placed over the victim’s body, which was removed before the Wyoming Crime Lab technicians arrived.

“It’s not what would be done today … but it’s what was done 25 years ago in Sublette County by a sheriff’s office that had limited resources.”

Contemporary re-testing of Ehlers’ clothing found “male-touch DNA” on her pink sweater and her khaki Patagonia shorts’ pockets – possibly from a technician not wearing gloves¬ – and also showed more than one man touched her clothing.

Apparent eyewitnesses Tim Basye, a friend, and Willoughby’s ex-wife Rosa Hoskings, will testify the three were on their way home to Daniel from a party in Jackson that morning, McMahon said, and Willoughby stopped just past Hoback Junction on Highway 191 to get a gun from coworker Bob Crews, now dead.

Willoughby then sped toward Bondurant and caught up to Ehlers in the pullout near Black Powder Ranch. He pulled her from the car, beat her and shot her, according to McMahon.

“This is not a made-for-TV movie and we can’t cast our own witnesses,” she told jurors. “You may not like Tim and Rosa but it doesn’t mean you should disregard everything they say.”

McMahon said neither dared tell anyone about the murder out of fear, but Basye did make an anonymous call shortly after from a Jackson payphone to CrimeStoppers, dropping Willoughby’s name.

Basye had made a statement in 1996 but after seeing a lawyer who advised him to recant until he received immunity, he said he lied, McMahon said, so Sublette County drafted a letter.

After Willoughby’s 2009 arrest in Montana and transfer to Sublette County Jail, she continued, he told another inmate specific details about why and how he killed Ehlers.

McMahon said the pieces would fall together and “… you will clearly see the Mona Lisa.”

Defense attorney Todd Oldham arose.

“The ultimate question is, why would Troy Willoughby put himself at the scene of the crime if he wasn’t there,” he said. “I think you’re going to see an ugly picture indeed but you will see why Troy Willoughby (and Basye and Hoskings) put themselves at the scene of the murder.”

Willoughby was 60 miles away down Cottonwood working on True Drilling’s Rig 25, Oldham stated, citing “two great wrongs.”

“Those charged with prosecuting citizens of Sublette County have accused the wrong man… (and) second, how they tried to pin this on him.”

Eyewitness statements came after “deceit, trickery, handing out get-out-of-jail cards and outright lies,” he said, adding they were “spoon-fed” details.

Oldham said when investigators questioned Willoughby last year “the state knew he was at work” June 21, 1984, and that the defendant’s handwriting wasn’t on records because he wasn’t supposed to do the writing.

And because Sublette County Sheriff’s Office SCSO Captain Brian Ketterhagen and County Investigator Randall Hanson had pieces that didn’t fit, they had “to re-interview” Basye and Hoskings, he said.

Oldham said all three changed their statements more than once. Willoughby totally denied involvement in an initial 11-hour interview with investigators in Montana, next stated the three were there but Ehlers was dead and then totally recanted.

The only reason Willoughby put himself at the scene was because “his back’s against the wall” – he couldn’t remember if he worked the day of the murder.

“… You can’t take a round peg and shove it into a square hole,” he said of the prosecution’s puzzle pieces.



First Witnesses

The state called County Investigator Randall Hanson to note mileage and locations on an oversized poster-map with an inset aerial photo of the Bondurant turnout. Hanson testified he drove between Jackson and Bondurant at least 10 times and could not maintain a consistent speed due to traffic but it averaged 28-30 minutes. On June 21, 1984, he said, weather records show the high was 59 degrees Fahrenheit and the low was 31. Sunrise came at 5:42 a.m.

• Ehlers’ best friend Amy Brooks took the stand and tried to describe Jackson in 1984. “It was a fun place, a lot of young people, party atmosphere, just a lot going on; it was just a good place to be.” Brooks said there was a lot of drug use then and that Ehlers, whom she described as a “very beautiful person,” did use drugs.

She identified Ehlers’ driver’s license photo – the only picture the jury saw of the victim alive. She, Ehlers and their husbands camped, hiked, played tennis and socialized and Ehlers was vibrant, always had a smile and was “fun to be with.” From a wealthy Florida family she had upper-middle-class and middle-class friends in Jackson, Brooks said.

Ehlers stayed at the Brooks home the night before she left after they played tennis, went to Calico Pizza, sat in a friend’s hot tub and went home. Ehlers had run to the store but couldn’t recall if it was before or after they went home, Brooks said, and she didn’t see her until the next morning. She believed Ehlers had gotten some cocaine “from my husband.”

Brooks said she worried about Ehlers driving cross-country alone and Lisa had said she hoped she didn’t “get murdered in a truck stop or rest area or something.”

• Kookie Paravicini, who lived in Bondurant in 1984, testified she went to work with her co-worker/neighbor at 5:37 a.m., noting she was seven minutes late. She saw Ehlers, whom she knew, 10 minutes later near Stinking Springs driving south. Paravicini said they waved to each other and noted a small truck with “funky little headlights,” a semi with lumber, a state highway truck and a reddish burgundy vehicle coming around a corner in her lane near Hoback Junction. She warmed up her truck before they left; it was cool but there was no ice on the windshield. She also said she checked the turnout and saw no one: “It was my fishing spot and I always monitored who was there.”

• David Hinz, then on a seismic crew, drove from a Hoback Canyon campsite to meet his boss in Daniel “between dark and sun-up.” As he drove past the turnout he saw the Jetta with its door open and light and turning signal on, and a body lying on the ground. He braked briefly but afraid and unable to contact anyone, he drove to Daniel and told his boss, and they reported the incident. He didn’t recall seeing the highway truck in his rear-view mirror, although he mentioned it in his 1984 statement.

• Eddie Smith, a highway worker, was a passenger as Ernie Potter drove a state dump truck through the canyon. He saw Ehlers’ Jetta in the turnout, parked and running, and a person lying beside it. He walked over and saw the bullet wound behind Ehlers’ ear and drove to the nearest house and called 911 while Potter waited at the scene. He didn’t remember seeing other vehicles. He returned to the crime scene and both waited for police.

• Ernie Potter, now retired, testified he always thought he “remembered seeing (a vehicle) going (south) around the far corner” and another earlier at Battle Mountain Lodge. When Smith left to call for help, Potter moved closer to thick willows to “stand watch,” thinking someone might still be around. He said a “wood truck” hauling poles or logs stopped and two men got out. He didn’t remember saying in 1984 one might have turned Ehlers over and then washed his hands in the river, or that a man turned off the car. He didn’t recall a man from Oregon stopping and going back north for help. But he recalled seeing dusty tire tracks appearing to turn behind the Jetta and head to Jackson.

• Doug Strike, then and now a logger and fence builder, had left Teton County with a passenger in a 1951 Ford F8 and testified he stopped when he saw a body on the ground in a pool of blood. No one else was in the turnout when he pulled up, he stated. His passenger grabbed Ehlers’ wrist and neck to check for a pulse but Strike was unsure if he turned the car off. Strike didn’t remember seeing other vehicles.

• Chris Brackin, then a Teton County sheriff’s deputy, was the first officer on the scene, he testified. Called around 6:10 a.m. at his home a mile north of Hoback Junction he arrived about 6:30. He grabbed his EMT kit and put on gloves before checking Ehlers’ pulse and breathing but did not move her still-warm body, but he did cover her with a blanket. She wasn’t moved until a Jackson ambulance arrived and an EMT checked her vital signs. Brackin was asked why a roadblock wasn’t set up; he replied he didn’t believe he had that authority then.

• Hank Ruland, then the SCSO undersheriff, testified he gathered up his video and camera equipment in Pinedale and arrived around 6:45 a.m. Three other officers there – then-Sheriff Bud Slatter, Deputy Joe Bollinger and Coroner Bill Meyer – are deceased, he said. Measurements of tire tracks were taken while Ruland shot video and photos showing Ehlers’ grisly wounds, her position on the ground and a large brilliant red pool of blood as well as spatters on the pavement.

He identified photos as they were passed to jurors; several looked visibly moved at the sight of Ehlers’ body, well-tended nails against the bullet wound through her hand, white sneakers on the pavement. Ruland said tire tracks were investigated but never led anywhere.

The murder scene and case were turned over to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and the State Crime Lab that day, he said. “We didn’t have enough expertise at that time to work a homicide case.” Ruland said they searched for a gun but the river was too high to search safely; they returned over the years but never found a firearm.

Ruland didn’t recall a Mr. Holt from Oregon but was asked if he remembered any people being hypnotized; he did. He read from Bollinger’s later report that stated, hypnotized, Holt remembered a full-sized dark car speeding north through the canyon about five miles north of the scene with two men in it and one looked intently at his vehicle. Holt then drove upon the crime scene, the report said.

Ruland verified two brothers living out of state who came home to Bondurant for their mother’s funeral were interviewed but couldn’t testify about it because they hadn’t made sworn statements – one is dead and one now infirm. He also testified drug connections were investigated but nothing panned out.

• Gene Ferrin, a TCSO deputy and EMT in 1984, testified he responded with a Jackson ambulance and moved Ehlers onto her back to check her airway, breathing and circulation. “She was warm; it was obvious it had just happened.”

He described himself as the “go-to guy” in the DCI investigation and told about the CrimeStoppers’ unrecorded line at the TCSO so callers could remain anonymous. Several calls about the Ehlers’ case were forwarded to him, then to DCI, including a short call identifying a suspect: “Troy Willoughby.” He forwarded it to DCI but thought of an informant Tim Basye, a known associate. He testified he spoke to Basye later and asked if he used Willoughby’s name in a call. Basye got a “deer-in-the-headlights look and said ‘I can’t talk to you about it.’”

• Former State Crime Lab technicians and retired director Sandy Mays testified they traveled to Jackson that same day to assist with Ehlers’ autopsy, noting progress in crime-scene processing since then. Mays stated Ehlers’ blood contained metabolites of cocaine and THC (and her purse contained seven-tenths a gram of cocaine and eight-tenths a gram of marijuana) and that Ehlers’ hand was shot through from the outside through the palm and into her chest. Mays said they did not make notes of lacerations or bruises; that was a pathologist’s duty. When asked, she stated she has disagreed with pathologists’ findings as have other pathologists.

• Bob Christiansen, former evidence technician, testified his expertise was in photography, explosives and firearms and tools. He said he examined the bullet fragments, in particular a flat-based jacket from a fired bullet. He determined it was possibly a hollow or soft-point bullet fired from a .38 special or a .357 Magnum, most likely a Ruger or Smith and Wesson revolver from which a case would not be ejected or a similarly grooved barrel. He testified he later examined bullets taken from trees and that he found no matches. “Certainly a variety of bullet types were represented but none that could relate back to Lisa Ehlers.” He said he concluded the bullets were not fired from the gun that killed her but couldn’t conclude they weren’t fired from a different .357 Magnum. He also said someone could change the barrel and it would no longer be the same gun.

• Richard Murphy, then a crime-lab technician analyzing bodily fluids, explained from the stand how he could only “type” one blood sample as Type A and that he thought DNA at that time was only being considered by Scotland Yard. He examined three hairs under a microscope and concluded they were “dissimilar to hers” but also testified hairs from different parts of a person’s body show different traits. Now, Murphy stated, technicians would “go straight to DNA.”

• SCSO Deputy Sarah testified about how she and SCSO Captain Brian Ketterhagen met with Willoughby in Montana on Feb. 26, 2009, that signed a Miranda waiver, said he understood his rights and was not threatened or coerced.

Willoughby maintained his innocence throughout the 11-hour interview, she said.

The state then started the video of that interview with Brew, Ketterhagen, Willoughby and several Montana officers coming and going. On it, Ketterhagen explained they had statements from people saying Willoughby was involved in Lisa Ehlers’ death. Willoughby said he didn’t remember going to a party, if they drove through the canyon and had no idea who Lisa Ehlers was – but he had been questioned several times before about her murder.



Interview videos

If Willoughby chooses to not take the stand, the initial February 2009 video is probably the closest jurors will come to seeing him testify.

Ketterhagen tells Willoughby that Ehlers’ mother is in the hospital and wants closure about the case.

“What was her name, Lisa Ehlers, I wouldn’t know her if I fell over her,” Willoughby replies.

The investigator tries to walk Willoughby through the night of June 20, 1984, asking him if he remembers going to a party in Jackson. “It’s possible.”

He asks if he remembers going home and stopping somewhere “to pee” and someone stopped behind them.

“Did you ever look into a guy named Bob Crews? He’s the one that told me the information I know.”

Ketterhagen asks if he hugged or touched Ehlers – “Then how do we get your DNA on her body?”

“What? You’re out of your mind,” Willoughby says. “I want an attorney.”

Ketterhagen says they need to take a break and he can’t talk to Willoughby any more if he wants an attorney.

“No, No, I’ll talk,” he replies, just before Ketterhagen takes a break.

Later both Ketterhagen and Brew suggest to Willoughby, if people such as his son, his ex-wife and friend are lying, maybe they can figure out why things are the way they are.

“There’s a lot of people trying to point a finger at you,” Ketterhagen says. “We got pretty vivid accounts from Rosa and Tim Basye (about you) killing Lisa Ehlers.”

Ketterhagen describes a scenario in which Crews pulls up behind Willoughby’s car just past Hoback Junction and hands him a gun that he put under the seat, then takes off driving fast and sees Ehlers’ car.

“The statements are pretty similar,” Brew says.

“Lisa has hairs – no way – I’m not going to fall into that,” says Willoughby.

Later he tells Brew he always thought Crews had something to do with the murder because he quit his job “just like that.” He repeats this thought numerous times in the first half of the video.

After several hours, Ketterhagen tells Willoughby, “If you got a story to tell, today’s the day to tell it.”

“Well, I never seen that girl,” Willoughby says.

Of Rosa, his son and Tim Basye, he states, “Every one of them has something to lose. … The DNA things going to clear me.”

During many breaks, Willoughby sits quietly, left foot on his right knee. At one point, a Montana investigator leaves a file with Ehlers’ photo on top of the desk; Willoughby glances at it and away. Awhile later, he reads a top page of a file without touching it, then picks up the corner, scans and lets it drop.

The SCSO officers return and prepare to show Willoughby a recording of Rosa making her statement.

“You need to see it, for yourself,” says Ketterhagen. He starts the recording and Rosa’s voice is barely audible except for random words. She tells her recollection of the night before and morning of Ehlers’ death and that her ex-husband had hit her in the face with a rifle butt after she brought up Ehlers’ death.

“You learned somebody there died?” “Yes.”

“Who?” “Lisa Ehlers.”

“Do you believe Troy Willoughby caused her death?” “Yes.”

In the interview room, Willoughby erupts into an emotional moan that ends as a roar or scream and clutches his head. He then began questioning and rebutting his ex-wife’s statement.

“I’d like to get on the stand … and have that woman look me in the eye. … I don’t know what she’s up to. … Get me Tim and Rosa in the same room and they’ll say ‘no way.’”

Ketterhagen asks him if he wants to see Basye’s statement.

“No.”

Later, Ketterhagen returns with food and tells Willoughby to go ahead and eat but he says he’s not hungry.

“I never ever hit Rosa with a gun,” he says, explaining he had “head-butted” her.

When not discussing the 1984 case, Willoughby visits with officers about redemption and weather. They begin listening to Basye’s statement.

“Wow, it is Tim,” he says, after eating a burger.

As soon as Basye makes his statement, Willoughby talks about the green and white Ford Bronco and tells Ketterhagen he was never in that Bronco.

Basye is crying at one point in his statement. “He’s having a tough time,” says Ketterhagen. “He’s lying,” Willoughby replies. “He’s crying. He’s lying.”

Later, he says, “Maybe one of them is mistaken about the Bronco but not both of them.”

After, they talk about Crews again and Ketterhagen composes a scenario in which Crews might have been mad enough to kill Ehlers himself.

“I’m trying to help you; I’ve been sitting here four hours,” Willoughby says.

He adds if Crews killed Ehlers, then he believes she was dealing drugs.

Would it take a gram of cocaine? Ketterhagen asks.

“I don’t think so,” he replies. “Maybe a kilo.”

Ketterhagen says straight out to Willoughby, “Somebody confronted Lisa that night and there was a struggle and I think she pulled his hair … and he shot and killed her and … it was for Bob Crews. Don’t get mad but I think you did. … I think you shot her.”

Willoughby replies, “That’s your opinion and you’re entitled to your own opinion.”

Soon he writes a statement about that night “to the best of (his) knowledge” and also states he probably had to work that morning, or perhaps the 5 p.m. shift.

He maintains his innocence throughout the video, however.

By the close of Friday’s courtroom proceeding, in the video Willoughby then carried on conversations with officers about gas prices, camper trailers, trucks, politics, sports and roofing with concrete shingles.



For the complete article see the 01-26-2010 issue.

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