​Our story begins with local missing woman Irene Gakwa, a young Kenyan native who moved to Gillette, Wyoming with her “fiancé” in July of 2021. The following February, Irene vanished without a trace.

​Irene’s story became public knowledge months after her disappearance as her “fiancé” never notified anyone that she was missing and instead portrayed an image that she was in fact still here by sending text messages to her family. In those messages, she claimed her phone had been dropped in water and the speaker and camera did not work. She was fine, she assured them via text. Those messages, however, became a red flag for the family because they were in English. Irene’s messages to them were typically in a mix of English and Irene’s native language is Swahili. It was at this point that her older brothers Kennedy and Chris drove from Boise, Idaho to Gillette to report her missing on March 20, 2022.

​Irene’s story went public after the Gillette police issued apress release that provided little information to the facts surrounding her disappearance. It said that her “fiancé” had been arrested on five felony charges, including transferring all the money from her bank account to his own using the Zelle feature on her phone and then changed her banking password. He also maxed out her credit cards, with some of the purchases raising extreme red flags including a pair of boots, pants, and a shovel from the Gillette Walmart. He also deleted her email and Whatsapp account. Following his arrest, he was released on bond and remained living in the couple’s home.

​With vague media reports and information being shared by the police and seeing no feet on the ground search efforts being made, we built a small team and began creating posters, yard signs, banners, flyers, and postcards to distribute to the public to make Irene’s story known. We organized feet on the ground searches that began with four people and has since grown to over 20 per search. We began reaching out to resources – including a cadaver dog team from Goshen County and a bloodhound search group from Colorado – and building a network of support and resources to aid our search efforts. Along with our foot searches, we also did our own investigative research. We were able to get Irene’s story on national news on multiple big networks as our searches continued.

In April 2023, in a plea agreement to drop 2 of the charges, Nathan Hightman changed his plea to guilty. Nathan's bail was revoked and he was taken into custody pending his sentencing on June 14th 2023, were he was sentenced to up to 9 years for his felony convictions and his financial crimes against missing woman Irene Gakwa.

​Through our work on Irene’s case, we became aware of the vast number of missing people in Wyoming – which ranks seventh in the nation according to one survey – and all the untold stories of those people. We also learned the daunting task facing families of missing people in trying to find resources and private investigators as well as the associated costs. These families were already going through the biggest struggles in life trying to locate their missing person and don’t need this additional burden. We decided right then that no family should have to struggle getting people to help them due to prohibitive cost. We decided to be those people who would help them bring their loved ones home and get answers. We formed WyoFind, a non-profit to help families locate and determine what happened to their missing person.

​Searches and media do come at an expense, and to take that burden from families already struggling, we became a donation-based non-profit organization with supporters and events to help cover our costs. All donations go to search efforts and media production for missing people. We are strictly volunteers and our resources go to finding missing people. 

This is not a job for us, this is personal.

Accomplishments and Certifications

With our FEMA Training, Back Country Search and Rescue certification, and Caltopo training, we are well-equipped to handle the most challenging cases.

Client Testimonial

One of our significant cases involved Azia Saldana, whom we were able to locate. We continue to stay in touch with Azia's mother on a daily basis, providing ongoing support, her mother happily accepted a position on our board.

Our Mission

No family should ever have to face the hardships of a missing person. Unfortunately, it's a reality that happens far too often. While we cannot alleviate the family's suffering, we can help them through to the best of our ability.

Helping Families Find Closure

Join us in our mission to reunite missing persons with their loved ones.