Cowboy State Daily Video News: Thursday, September 3, 2026

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Thursday, September 3rd.  I'm Mac Watson.

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A Wyoming pilot and father of three remains missing after a devastating Grand Canyon flash flood over the weekend. Cowboy State Daily's Kolby Fedore reports that his wife and children are holding out hope that Tim Smith will be found.

"53-year-old Timothy Smith was hiking with two lifelong friends from Texas in the Grand Canyon on Saturday when a flood swept through Bright Angel Creek, killing his companions. By Sunday morning, Smith was reported missing. The National Park Service is leading this search with the assistance from the Coconino County Search and Rescue as well as the U.S. Border Patrol. Following the flood, initially 15 people were reported missing. Smith remains the only person who has yet to be found."

Timothy Allen Smith, from Star Valley Ranch in western Wyoming, was hiking with longtime friends 46-year-old John Giusti, and 42-year-old Brent Rosenkranz, both of Granbury, Texas, when the flood struck Saturday afternoon.

Read the full story HERE.

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The driver of a runaway dump truck on Teton Pass that killed two people July 7th faces a pair of homicide by vehicle charges and could get him up to two years, so say court documents filed Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily's Greg Johnson reports that troopers say he bypassed a runaway truck escape.

"The big takeaway from the affidavit that the trooper wrote about this case is that, and he said it multiple times in here that, in his opinion, this could have all been avoided. That people didn't have to die. That this truck driver could could have heeded some of the the warnings when his when he first started noticing some of the signs that his brakes might be failing that you got to pull over and that just past and that the the crash happened just past an escape ramp an area where trucks go in case their brakes do go out. Some people may wonder why does it take so long to initiate charges? In this case outlined in the affidavit, it takes a while to recreate that and to to really put together the picture. This trooper really put together a good picture of the series of events, what happened, who got hit first, and who got knocked into who? It was quite a chain reaction."

22-year-old Laiton George McMinn of Idaho faces a pair of misdemeanor homicide by vehicle charges. The two charges have maximum sentences of up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000. That puts the maximum potential penalty, if convicted and given consecutive sentences, of up to two years and $4,000.

Read the full story HERE.

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