Renee Diane Yeargain, 24, of Torrington, Wyoming, was reported missing on August 9–10, 2004. At the time she lived with her fiancé, Josh Minter, and their four children, and the couple was twelve days from their planned wedding. Minter told police the two argued that night and that Yeargain left on foot carrying a grocery sack of clothing, refusing to say where she was going; he later told her mother a different account, that Yeargain returned home on August 10 to retrieve her car. On August 12, 2004, Yeargain's white 1987 Subaru station wagon was found abandoned, windows down and keys in the ignition, at the Meriden rest area on U.S. Highway 85 between Cheyenne and Torrington, where it had been parked since August 10. Her purse, wallet, checkbook, and cellphone were inside, but no cash, her tattoo kit, or her clothing were found, and officers noted an apparent burned area in the rear of the vehicle. Yeargain is 5'8", 135–145 lbs, with naturally brown hair (often dyed red at the time) and blue eyes, and has multiple tattoos including a partial nun and two figures on her arms, incomplete rose work on her chest, and lettering on her fingers. She was last reported wearing blue jeans and a black tank top with a red heart and bug design.
The Torrington Police Department investigated the case for over 17 years before Wyoming's Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) assumed the case in December 2021 at the department's request; DCI's cold case team calls it an active investigation with unspecified leads still being pursued. In 2018, Torrington PD and Goshen County Search and Rescue conducted cadaver-dog searches on a property on Road 61 near Huntley, Wyoming, where Minter was then living with his mother; two independent cadaver dog teams alerted on a burn pit at the site, and a subsequent search warrant permitted exhumation, but roughly 25 recovered bone fragments were later determined by DCI's lab to be animal in origin. Minter has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing; he has not returned press inquiries in recent years. Yeargain's case is listed with NCIC, NamUs (#MP2581), the Wyoming DCI Missing Person Clearinghouse, and the Wyoming Cold Case Database. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Torrington Police Department at 307-532-7001 or the Wyoming DCI Cold Case Team at 307-777-7181. Case Number 2021-01718.
