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MURDER
CASE #: 1974-11
Jayleen Dawn Banker
Status: Open
Date of Offense: Friday, Aug 23, 1974
Jurisdiction: Carbon County Sheriffs Department (WY)
Offense Location: Rawlins, Wyoming
Summary: Jayleen Dawn Banker was abducted from the Carbon County Fair being held in Rawlins, Wyoming during the summer of 1974. Eight months later, her partially clad body was found in a field just two miles outside of Rawlins. She had been murdered and the crime appeared to be sexually motivated since some of her clothing was off her body. Banker was one of four other young girls who disappeared from the Rawlins area during the summer of 1974. Two were found murdered and two remain missing.
Vital Statistics
Height: 5'0"
Weight: 75-85 lbs
Sex: Female
Race: White
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Age at Offense: 10 Years
Circumstances of Offense: Jayleen disappeared from Rawlins, Wyoming on August 23rd 1974. That evening, she attended the Carbon County Rodeo with several friends. The fair was being held five blocks away from Banker’s home. At some point, the friends all dispersed around the attractions and rides. Jayleen was last seen standing near a popcorn stand. She failed to return home that night and was never seen again. When she failed to come back home by 10:30 pm, her parents called the police and filed a missing persons report. Police immediately suspected Banker may have been abducted and searched for her extensively with no results. On April 24th 1975, a Rawlins engineer was running with his dog through a field near the local gravel pits when he came across Jayleen’s badly decomposed body. The location was two miles outside of Rawlins and five miles away from the fairgrounds where she vanished from. Jayleen was partially clothed and was found lying face down in a rocky area. She was clad in only her shirt, socks, and shoes. Other articles of her clothing were found nearby as well as shotgun shells. The shells were too old to be connected to the case. An autopsy concluded that Jayleen had been killed by a blow to the head and she was likely killed at the scene. No arrests were ever made in the case which remains a mystery.
Additional Details: While Jayleen’s killer has never been identified or arrested, investigators suspect her death is linked to the other missing Rawlins girls. On July 4th 1974 two nineteen year old girls, Carlene Brown and Christy Gross, disappeared after attending the Little Britches Rodeo in Rawlins, Wyoming. Their car was later found abandoned. In October 1983, the skeletal remains of Christy Gross were discovered in a field three miles south of Sinclair, Wyoming. She had been killed by two hard blows to her head. Carlene Brown has never been located but police presume she was murdered along with Christy. Another girl, fifteen year old Deborah Meyer, disappeared on August 4th 1974 from the Rawlins area. She was last seen leaving a relative’s home on Seventh and Spruce Streets to walk to a local movie theater. She failed to arrive to the theater and was never seen again. Meyer remains missing but investigators generally suspect she met the same fate as the other three girls. It’s been theorized that possible serial killer, Royal Russell Long was involved in the cases. Long lived in the Rawlins area during 1974 where he was known to work at local fairs and carnivals. He was convicted of kidnapping twelve year old Sharon Baldeagle and her friend in January 1985. Both girls ran away from their homes in Eagle Butte, South Dakota on September 18th 1984 and were picked up by Long while hitchhiking in Casper, Wyoming. He took them back to his home in Evansville where he held them at gun point and tied them up. Long physically beat Sharon and raped her friend. The friend managed to free herself and flee to a neighbors house. Before the police could arrive, Long fled with Sharon. He was apprehended a week later in New Mexico, Baldeagle was not with him at the time. Long denied killing the girl and said she was still alive when he last saw her. He was sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping. Later that year, he was also charged with the kidnappings and murders of two Oklahoma City girls who were taken from the Oklahoma State Fair during the fall of 1981. Cinda Pallett and Charlotte Kinsey, both 13, were last seen being driven away by an unidentified man matching Long’s description on September 25th 1981. Neither girl has ever been found. The charges against Long in those cases were eventually dismissed due to lack of evidence. He remains the primary suspect in the 1981 kidnappings. Royal Long died of a heart attack while serving his life sentence for kidnapping in 1993.
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