Janelle Lee Johnson, 23, left Riverton for Denver on February 17, 1983, for a modeling interview and began hitchhiking back that evening. She was reportedly last seen about 9 p.m. at a Sinclair truck stop and a phone call from Rawlins to her workplace in Riverton was documented during her return trip. A missing-person report was filed on February 22, 1983.

On March 1, county workers found Johnson’s body on Muskrat Creek Road near Shoshoni in Fremont County; she had been partially buried in a shallow grave and was found without clothing or jewelry. Investigators collected seminal fluid and a bite-mark impression, but later reported critical biological samples became unusable after a cold-storage failure, hampering forensic identification. The homicide has been linked to the cluster called the Great Basin Murders and is often cited as that series’ first identified victim. No arrest or public identification of a suspect has been announced.

If anyone has information about Johnson’s movements on February 17, 1983, or remembered seeing her between Denver and Riverton, please come forward.