GILLETTE, Wyo.–The makeshift memorial caught Stacy Koester’s eye. She put on the brakes and inched her black Audi sports car backward along the gravel road to get a better look. A small wooden cross, adorned by a pink plastic carnation, was surrounded by a circle of rocks among craggy shrubs and cheat grass on the side of the hill at LAK Reservoir, outside Newcastle in Weston County.

GILLETTE, Wyo.–A year ago, Stacy Koester never expected a Facebook post would change her life. The 39-year-old wife and mother of three teenage daughters already had her hands full with her family and job as an office manager at a local tire company.

GILLETTE, Wyo.—Another tip has come in. Stacy Koester headed east on Interstate 90 Saturday morning to investigate a 55-gallon barrel that was spotted on ranchland in eastern Campbell County.

Over the past eight months, Koester has logged hundreds of miles in her 2019 Audi A6, scouring the countryside for any trace of 33-year-old Irene Gakwa.

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

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.