Amy Wroe Bechtel

Case background and investigation

Amy Wroe Bechtel was 24 and had been married for about a year when she disappeared on July 24, 1997, near Lander, Wyoming. She was an accomplished distance runner, and according to Cowboy State Daily she was planning the route for a 10-kilometer race in the Shoshone National Forest. Her husband, Steve Bechtel, a rock climber, was climbing with a friend that day.

When she did not come home, a search began that night. Her white Toyota Tercel was found at about 1 a.m. on July 25 at Burnt Gulch on the Loop Road, roughly 15 miles from Lander in the Wind River Range, according to Wikipedia's summary of the case. Cowboy State Daily reported that her keys were on the passenger seat along with a to-do list, and that her wallet has never been recovered.

The search that followed was one of the largest in Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily reported that more than 300 trained searchers, National Guard units and helicopters with thermal imaging took part, and that after about eight days without results investigators concluded that foul play was likely. No physical evidence of what happened to her was found. In June 2003 a digital watch resembling one she owned was found near the Popo Agie River, but it could not be confirmed as hers.

Investigators initially focused on Steve Bechtel. According to published accounts, his climbing partner supported his account of being near Dubois that day, no physical evidence tied him to a crime, and he declined a polygraph test on the advice of his attorney. He has never been charged and has denied any involvement. He had his wife declared legally dead in 2004.

Later investigators turned their attention to Dale Wayne Eaton, who was convicted of the 1988 murder of Lisa Marie Kimmell. Fremont County Sheriff's Lt. John Zerga has said that Eaton's brother reported Eaton was camping in the Burnt Gulch area when Bechtel vanished. Eaton has refused to discuss the case and has not been charged in connection with it.

In October 2025, Cowboy State Daily reported that a Natrona County property owner who had once allowed Eaton to stay on her land told investigators she had found a gas receipt and newspaper clippings from around July 1997 in vehicles he left behind. Zerga told the outlet the tip was worth following up and that cadaver dogs could be brought to the property; no official search had been carried out at the time of that report. The case remains open and unsolved.