Most Uncommon Events at Ryan Park

By Duane Shillinger

Deputy Sheriff Lenny Craig and Delmar Mentis set about to solve the murder of a man found lying on a popular hiking trail. Their task is made more challenging by the difficult-to-decipher clues that they have discovered around the area of the murder scene. Their contacts with local residents do provide them with valuable information, but events beyond their control prevent them from quickly solving the murder case. The man who could help them withholds information that would specifically describe the motives, the means, and possibly the way the murder was committed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504949002

Duane Shillinger

Duane Shillinger grew up on the Crow Indian Reservation near Wyola and Lodge Grass, Montana. Life on the reservation was difficult with meager amounts of money for his parents to provide for the basic needs of the family members. Duane attended an Indian school at Wyola and achieved poorly in the multi-cultural environment. His mother, acutely aware of the poor academic achievement, found it possible for the family to move to Sheridan, Wyoming where Duane was exposed to new opportunities. After graduating from high school, Duane enlisted in the United States Navy and was assigned to a communication station for the Sixth Fleet in North Africa. Later, Duane was assigned to several ships where he served as a radioman. He very much enjoyed using Morse Code as a means to send messages. Once out of the Navy Duane attended the Sheridan Community College and then graduated from the University of Wyoming, majoring in social work and psychology. In 1967 Duane was employed at the Wyoming State Penitentiary as a counselor and was eventually appointed as Deputy Warden; and, in 1979, Governor Edward Herschler appointed Duane to serve as Warden of the prison. After nearly thirty (30) years service at the prison, Duane retired and he and his wife, Darlene, located in the small community of Ryan Park, a summer and retirement home located above Saratoga, Wyoming. It was at Ryan Park that Duane was inspired by the environment and sometimes the clash of residents to try his hand at writing a mystery novel. His book, MOST UNCOMMON EVENTS AT RYAN PARK, left two (2) characters believing that Irana Dubliski was wrongly released from the charge of murdering her husband.

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© 2015 Duane Shillinger. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/14/2015

ISBN: 978-1-5049-3466-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-4900-2 (e)

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Chapter One May 1, 1982 A Spring Day At Ryan Park

Chapter Two May 1, 1982 Strange Evidence

Chapter Three May 1, 1982 Late Morning Sharing The News With Lenny Craig

Chapter Four May 1, 1982 Lenny Craig Examines The Area

Chapter Five May 3, 1982 Several Ryan Park Residents Serve On A Coroner’s Jury

Chapter Six April 27, 1982 A Chance Meeting

Chapter Seven April 27, 1982 About 10:30 P.m. An Oncoming Storm

Chapter Eight April 28, 1982 Poor Decisions And A Toronado On The Horizon

Chapter Nine May 3, 1982 At The Barret Creek Cabin

Chapter Ten April 30, 1982 Irana Dubliski

Chapter Eleven May 4, 1982 Delmar Mentis And Deputy Craig

Chapter Twelve April 30, 1982 Darkness

Chapter Thirteen April 30, 1982 The Trail

Chapter Fourteen May 4, 1982 Deputy Craig And Delmar Mentis

Chapter Fifteen April 30, 1982 Deputy Sours Arrives

Chapter Sixteen May 16, 1982 Saratoga News

Chapter Seventeen May 25, 1982 Saratoga News

Chapter Eighteen September 6, 1982 Omaha, Nebraska

Chapter Nineteen September 20, 1982 The Arrest

Chapter Twenty September 28, 1982 Carbon County Justice Proceedings

Chapter Twenty One September 29, 1982 Additional Proceedings

Chapter Twenty Two October 5, 1982 The Bird Is Out Of The Cage

Chapter Twenty Three November 28, 1982 Ryan Park

Acknowledgements

As a result of the contributions made by others my personal efforts to create this story have been enhanced. I thank my wife, Darlene, for her endless encouragement and for her continued belief that the story was worthy of publishing. To Sheri Shillinger I am indebted for her editing and email services! And of particular assistance was Dan Massey, Rawlins City Attorney, who read the story and provided very interesting suggestions for the end of the book. Finally, I thank Freida Armijo, Freez Photography, for allowing me to use one of her photographs.

The story would not have been complete without the valuable contributions of those mentioned.

Foreword

Duane Shillinger, the author, while employed as the Warden of the Wyoming State Penitentiary purchased land and eventually had a home constructed at Ryan Park, a small mountain community just above Saratoga, Wyoming. While still employed Duane and his wife, Darlene, used their Ryan Park home on weekends and during summer vacations. Upon retirement, they moved full-time to Ryan Park where they comfortably settled in and began to familiarize themselves with their community and its inhabitants. Many long lasting friendships were formed while in Ryan Park.

During the summers, Ryan Park was a busy little community where owners of cabins came to leave behind the hustle of work and city life. In the winter, Ryan Park became a favorite location for winter sports enthusiasts; but in the winter only a handful of people remained to live full-time. Cabin fever took on new and additional meanings during the long, cold winters.

In addition to the beautiful mountain and forested setting of Ryan Park were the interesting (and extremely good) people—visitors, participants in the winter sports activities, and full-time dwellers at Ryan Park—who contributed to the mystique and character of the little settlement.

Ryan Park developed its own quaint characteristics: some people concentrated only on the beauty of the area; others worked daily to maintain and improve their cabins and homes; while some indulged themselves in the bickering, gossip, and interference in other’s business; and a few drifted into the unpopular role of attempting to regulate all that there was to regulate within the bounds of Ryan Park. Generally, however, although feathers were sometimes ruffled when conflicts developed over issues, the rules, regulations, covenants, and personal concerns served to maintain the cleanliness of the area and, just as important, to minimize safety issues resulting from shoddy construction projects and questionable usages of land. But, that is not what this book is about!

While living there, the author wondered if Ryan Park, a particularly peaceful and enchanting little community, could ever be visited upon by the everyday violence and mayhem common to the large cities. The human elements for any type of behavior were recognizable in the Ryan Park area, and visitors to the area brought with them their own means of managing life’s little and big problems. Combining the known variables offered by Ryan Park residents and the unknown variables carried into the area by travelers and short term visitors, the author, drawing upon his recollections of the criminal cases that filled the penitentiary when he served as the warden, endeavored to create one of any possible scenarios that could occur in the Ryan Park community.

Would Ryan Park become a crime scene in which only residents were involved? Or would it be a visitor? We shall soon see.

NOTE: As the author crafted the plot and characters for MOST UNCOMMON EVENTS AT RYAN PARK he did not refer to any actual person who may have resided at or still resides at Ryan Park. Any character in the book who may in some manner resemble a Ryan Park personality is purely coincidental.

Chapter One

May 1, 1982

A Spring Day At Ryan Park

Sun dripped in splotches through tightly meshed aspen leaves—leaves that in the last few days had slowly unfolded as if in celebration of the renaissance occurring throughout the forest surrounding Ryan Park—to settle on the leafy shrubs below as an untidy arrangement of differently hued shadows. On a nearby slender willow branch, restlessly shifting from one pencil-sized leg to the other, an industrious magpie earnestly chattered a message—known only to other magpies—to its mate, or perhaps to another’s mate. Roused by the raucous black and white feathered sentinel, a squirrel, recently released from winter’s low rations, quietly nibbling the offerings of a blue spruce several feet from the magpie’s perch, now rattled sharp clucks of scolding to the flirtatious intruder. Then, the magpie’s noisy critic scrambled higher among the pine branches to interfere with a Blue Jay’s breakfast of dry dog food, probably filched from Tony Foyt’s front porch.

It was about that time that Delmar Mentis, a long time resident of Ryan Park, wheezed up the trail on his morning body restoration ritual. The not so light footed, bulky framed Delmar—wrapped with a much used towel about his head and shoulders—rhythmically planted each dirty tennis shoe in cadence with his thumping heart and wheezing lungs. Sluggishly propelling himself in his intended direction (back to his cabin in the woods just above Barrett Creek), Delmar, as each large tennis shoe firmly pounded the ground beneath him, left in his wake a series of mushroom-like dust clouds and scattered stones. Although it had lightly rained the night before, the ground was drying as the morning progressed.

Breathing heavily, almost gasping for air; feet resonating like poorly tuned bass drums as the large rubber shoes met the irregular composition of the forest trail; and occasionally a large hand slapping at a hungry mosquito: all combined to form the cacophony that so nearly silenced the magpie, the still busy squirrel, and the Blue Jay yet engrossed in his meal.

As if to signify his displeasure with Delmar’s intrusion, the magpie flipped himself around on the willow branch to squarely face Delmar, and then, just as quickly, sailed a short distance behind the puffing, unwelcome guest. There was a reason why the magpie did not leave the place where he and his nearby more cautious mate had spent the night.

Just ahead of the panting runner the path narrowed where pines and quakies were slowly reclaiming a section of the old logging road. As Delmar entered the narrowing portion of the trail, the path began to curve to his left: a gentle curve, framed with tall willow growth, aspen, and pines; but sufficient to block his view for the next twenty to thirty yards. About the time that Delmar could no longer see beyond the curve, his ungainly gait was brought to a sudden halt by a waddling porcupine that had claimed ownership of the trail. As Delmar considered his best strategy for edging by the spiny creature, looking to the left and then to the right of the best-left-alone obstacle in his path, a shiny piece of metal, just beyond the porcupine and lying nearly concealed in the grass and pine cones, became more important to the jogger than the little animal that had yet to even acknowledge his presence.

Cautiously approaching the porcupine, aware that the untidy ball of quills would merely turn its back in a defensive maneuver should it be interfered with in any manner, Delmar, nevertheless, chose to step softly as he made his way around the porky and then to the object lying at the edge of the trail.

Even before Delmar had