GILLETTE, Wyo.—It’s been 14 months since Irene Gakwa vanished without a trace. The only “person of interest” in her mysterious disappearance, as identified by police, is sitting in the general population at the Campbell County Detention Center and awaiting sentencing in June after admitting to stealing nearly $6,000 from Gakwa and deleting her email account after she went missing.

GILLETTE, Wyo.—The sentencing date for the fiancé of Irene Gakwa, the missing Kenyan nursing student, has been set for June 14.

GILLETTE, Wyo.—The fiancé of a missing Kenyan woman pleaded guilty to three of the five felonies related to crimes against her in Campbell County District Court before District Judge James Michael Causey on Tuesday afternoon. As a result, Nathan Hightman’s bond was revoked, and he was escorted out of the courtroom in handcuffs.

GILLETTE, Wyo.—The fiancé of the missing Kenyan nursing student will change his plea in the felony charges related to his alleged financial crimes in the wake of her 2022 disappearance.

Nathan Hightman, 39, was charged for five felony crimes related to Irene Gakwa, 33, who has been missing since late February 2022.

A reporter and citizen investigator will be interviewed in Gillette this week for a web series that covers missing persons.

Newly obtained records deepen the mystery of the missing Kenyan who lived in Gillette: Before moving to Wyoming, Nathan Hightman reported to police that his fiancé, Irene Gakwa, used his credit card without permission to purchase a plane ticket to Nairobi.

They called each other “twinnie” and checked in every day. Susan Minkovsky has known Irene Gakwa since they roomed together at the Karoti Girls High School outside Nairobi, Kenya. When Minkovsky moved to the United States to attend college in Alabama, their friendship didn’t wane.

GILLETTE, Wyo.—After multiple delays, legal proceedings against the fiancé of the missing Kenyan nursing student are moving forward with a trial date this spring.

GILLETTE, Wyo.—In the latest twist in the Irene Gakwa case, court records show 33 witnesses will appear in the upcoming trial of Nathan Hightman, including the owner of a house in San Antonio where public records indicate Gakwa may have lived.

GILLETTE, Wyo.—In the latest wrinkle in the high-profile Irene Gakwa case, prosecutors and the defense for the missing woman’s fiancé have requested a longer trial and potentially a change of venue due to concerns that the defendant would not receive a fair trial in Gillette.

A stash of text messages obtained by the Wyoming Truth sheds light on the deepening and complex relationship between a missing Kenyan woman and her fiancé even as her oldest brother cautioned them to “take things slow” in their budding relationship.

Nearly 10 months after Irene Gakwa disappeared from her Gillette home, her family still has more questions than answers as they attempt to piece together the mystery of what happened to her.

GILLETTE, Wyo. – The blinds are drawn in the windows of the pale blue ranch house in northern Campbell County where Irene Gakwa once lived. The 33-year-old Kenyan moved to this single-story house in July 2021 with her fiancé, Nathan Hightman. She has since disappeared. Nobody has seen or heard from Gakwa since her last video call with her parents in late February.

GILLETTE, Wyo.—Nathan Hightman is no stranger to tragedy.

Much has been said and written about the strange and troubling disappearance of his fiancé, Irene Gakwa, from this part of coal country in Wyoming. But lost in the hue and cry is who’s at the center of the story—Hightman himself—and the little-known fact that, when he was in his early 20s, his mother was murdered at her home by her estranged ex-husband.

GILLETTE, Wyo.—Who is Nathan J. Hightman?

It’s a question that many people are asking—from Gillette to Nairobi. For the past 10 months, Hightman’s name has been splashed across headlines and his image broadcast on network news as the fiancé of Irene Gakwa, 33, the Kenyan nursing student who vanished last winter.

The search for Irene Gakwa continued over the weekend, nearly a month after law enforcement officials conducted their second search of the house Gakwa shared with her fiancé, 39-year-old Nathan Hightman, to recover evidence related to the Kenyan's disappearance last winter.

GILLETTE, Wyo.—The family is not sleeping, and all of their emotions are up in the air, Chris Munga told the group gathered at a local coffee shop in downtown Gillette. Munga’s sister, Irene Gakwa, 33, has been missing since late February.

GILLETTE, Wyo.—A Campbell County district judge granted a second continuance request by the fiancé of a missing Gillette woman who has been charged with five felonies related to crimes against her with a new pretrial conference scheduled for January.

GILLETTE, Wyo.—The Gillette Police Department and FBI staged an investigation at the house of the fiancé of the missing Gillette resident on Thursday morning after securing warrants to investigate evidence tied to the case.