Editor’s Note Feb. 6: This article has been updated to include the correct information about the last known whereabouts of Cian McLaughlin on the Lupine Meadows trail system on June 8, 2021.
JACKSON, Wyo. — Feb. 3 is National Missing Persons Day which aims to raise awareness for missing person cases that remain unsolved.
In Wyoming, there are currently 85 missing person cases listed on the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation website dedicated to all the active missing person cases in the state. The cases date as far back as 1974 to as recent as Jan. 23.
In Teton County, there are currently three missing person cases open, James Daniels Jr., Cian McLaughlin and Katherine Schupp Major.
James Daniels Jr.
James Daniels Jr., 43, was last seen on Aug. 21, 2021, on Highway 93 between Kingman and Wickenberg Arizona. Daniels was helping a friend move when the two got a flat tire. Daniels stayed with the box truck he had been driving and the trailer his friend was towing while the friend went to get a new tire in his Chevy Truck. The friend did not return until the late afternoon of Aug. 22. Four witnesses claim to have seen Daniels between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Aug. 22, disoriented on the side of the highway. An Arizona State Trooper arrived on the scene at about 4:30 a.m. and had the box truck towed. Daniels was not with the truck. The dog Penny was spotted by the trooper but ran off into the desert.
Cian McLaughlin
Cian McLaughlin, 27, was last seen in the late afternoon on June 8, 2021, hiking on the Lupine Meadows trail system that leads towards Garnet Canyon, Surprise and Amphitheater Lakes, and Delta Lake. Computer forensics reveal that McLaughlin had conducted internet searches focused on Delta Lake prior to his hike.
He is a white male, approximately 6’0, 180 pounds, with brown hair and eyes. Cian was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, wire-rimmed glasses, and a red apple watch. He also had a red iPhone 12 mini nad was wearing a U-shaped pendant necklace. He may have also been wearing a hat, shorts and hiking boots.
In June 2022 a local woman was charged for knowingly providing false information and a false report in the search for McLaughlin.
“This wasted valuable time that could have been focused on searching areas of higher probability and it cost the Federal Government approximately $17,600,” said Grand Teton National Park.
Katherine Schupp Major
Katherine Schupp Major, 53, was last seen in Teton County on Sept. 19, 2009. She is a white female, approximately 5’5?, with green eyes, brown hair and a scar on her lower right abdomen. She was last seen at a hotel wearing an off-white cloudveil hoodie with embroidery on the left arm.
The website for active missing person cases was created in September 2021, in the wake of heightened media attention surrounding the Gabby Petito case. Petito, a young white woman, went missing while on a cross-country road trip. Her body was later found near Grand Teton National Park.
The case drew national media attention and was shared widely on social media. It brought to light a phenomenon known as “missing white woman syndrome.”
In Wyoming, just 18% of cases of missing Indigenous women over the past decade received media coverage, according to a state report on missing and murdered indigenous people released in January 2021.
According to the report, between 2011 and September 2020, 710 Indigenous persons were reported missing. Eighty-five percent were juvenile, and 57% were female. They were reported missing from 22 counties in Wyoming. In Wyoming, Indigenous people account for less than 3% of the population.
American Indian and Alaska Native women are missing and murdered at a rate of more than 10 times the national average, according to The Department of Justice.
