The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating the shooting death of a Pine Bluffs crop duster on June 24. Those who knew him are still shocked.
Kevin Hefley, 52, a local pilot and owner of Airtime Aerial, was shot and killed in the 1200 block of County Road 157 that afternoon, and the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office has not released any additional information.
A “shooter has been located,” according to the agency’s initial report on the shooting that day. As the investigation continues, no additional information will be released, including whether the incident was the result of an alleged criminal act by the shooter.
Mark Clark of Stonewall, Oklahoma, was Hefley’s friend at Kansas State University, where they were both members of the rodeo team.
He told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that Hefley’s death is difficult to believe.
Rodeo teammate
“We were on the K State rodeo team together and Kevin was a bareback rider,” Clark told me. “We just kept in contact with each other. He is originally from Walsh, Colorado.
Clark, a commodities broker in Stonewall, Oklahoma, said Hefley and his brother and father ran a successful ranch in Walsh. He said Hefley had always wanted to fly and went into crop-dusting after his divorce.
That company hired Hefley for spraying jobs in Wyoming, Arizona, Texas, and other states.
“He got to where he really enjoyed it,” Clark explained.
He said Hefley remarried in 2015 and relocated to Wyoming, but he knew little about his second wife, Christy, a professional barrel racer.
Clark stated that Hefley would contact him from time to time because he had purchased a few cattle to monitor the markets. He described him as a “level-headed guy.”
“He was not one to fly off the handle or anything like that ever,” he claimed. “In all the years that I knew him, I never saw him do that.”
‘Under Investigation’
Brian Warner, spokesman for the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office, said he understands there is a lot of interest in the case, but he was unable to answer questions about it on Monday.
“All we are releasing right now is that it is under investigation,” Warner informed the press. “I wouldn’t expect anything else to be released until the investigation is complete.”
No arrests have been made, and Warner declined to comment on the weapon, the number of times Hefley was shot, or the location of the incident.
Calls to the Laramie County Coroner’s Office about whether or not an autopsy was performed in the case had not been returned by the time this story was published.
