A previous version of this story misstated Petry died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Sublette County Sheriff's Office reiterated Petry died of a self-inflicted injury and the coroner's office is investigating cause and time of death. The Roundup apologizes for this error.

SUBLETTE COUNTY – The last time anyone recalled seeing or speaking with Vanessa Sue “Nessy” Orren, 56 years old and living in LaBarge at the time, was Feb. 1, 2016.

After finding no trace of her after LaBarge, her family in another state finally called a Sublette County investigator and reported her as a missing person in January 2017. Detective Ian Allen took the case with scant details about Orren’s life. These are officially posted online with occasional new requests for information about Orren’s fate.

On one site, someone hinted that Orren might have “burned her bridges.”

In 2016, Orren was reported as 56 years old, 5 feet to 5 feet, 5 inches tall, weighing 110 to 115 pounds with reddish brown hair and blue eyes.

One person believed to have much more knowledge of Orren’s fate, though, shot and killed himself last week while investigators searched his property – off-the-grid trapper Darrell Lee “Pete” Petry, 66, who moved into his remote cabin 15 years ago just inside the southwestern Sublette County line.

Search, suicide

Petry, whose body was found June 22, took his own life sometime after he left his home during the search that opened Saturday, June 19, and closed out Wednesday, June 23, according to Sublette County Public Information Officer Travis Bingham.

Bingham issued a statement Wednesday, June 30, and spoke with the Pinedale Roundup in follow-up phone interviews.

Petry bought the 60-acre property in June 2006 and lived off the grid in a log cabin with three gas wells onsite surrounded by remote ranch and BLM lands; he had a LaBarge mailing address, according to county records.

He described it as “in the middle of one of Wyoming’s winter mule deer ranges” and posted pictures of his “pet” bobcat and still-alive animals caught in his traps.

Petry also described himself online as a discharged Army veteran, horse-shoer and avid trapper “in pursuit of coyotes” through many states with government and private contracts and bounties. As “Petry Petry” he posted several dozen trapping YouTube videos mainly in 2018, as well as video and photos of coyotes and foxes trapped but alive.

In April 2016, Petry posted that he felt like he was “missing out on something” by being single. “I might be kinda on the old side but still fiesty (sic) so I gotta try I don’t care what you look like unless y’r uglier than butt ugly,” he wrote. “I don’t care if y’r thin or think (sic), short or tall…”

Connection?

The connection between Orren and Petry will not be released yet but it led Allen to recently request the search warrant looking for evidence of Orren’s disappearance, Bingham said Thursday.

Detective Allen had “probable cause” but Bingham declined before press time to say what that was or to give results of the multi-day search. He also declined to say where Orren and Petry lived before each came to Wyoming.

Sublette County invited the FBI, Wyoming Highway Patrol, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, BLM, Wyoming Game and Fish and NecroSearch International to participate, according to the release.

Petry stayed on when the convoy of investigators first arrived on Saturday, June 19, and he left on Sunday, June 20, “to check his traps,” Bingham told the Roundup.

His body was found on June 22 about 15 minutes from his cabin but the location and its significance, if any, are not yet public, Bingham added.

Asked if Petry shot himself the day he left his cabin or later, Bingham said the coroner was investigating.

Petry might have developed as a suspect to be questioned but at that time he was not detained or under arrest, according to Bingham.

That he might kill himself or flee – “Nobody there got that from him,” Bingham said. “He just didn’t come back.”

Still active

Orren would be 61 now. Whether she is dead or alive is still not known – but Bingham said the search for her continues as if she is alive.

Missing-person sites that reported her 2016 disappearance noted Orren did not reach out to many people and that her boyfriend, not named, said the last he saw her was getting into a truck with men in it and leaving.

“We’re not assuming that she’s dead,” Bingham said. “We’re treating her as a missing person; we would just like to find her so we know.”

The investigation is active and ongoing. Anyone with information about Vanessa Sue Orren’s disappearance is asked to call the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office Detective Division at 307-730-4378.