True Crime Collection

Amy Wroe Bechtel

Amy was born Amy Joy Wroe in Santa Barbara, California in 1972. She graduated from the University of Wyoming, where she met her husband, Steve Bechtel. In college, Amy was a competitive long distance runner, and hoped to try out for the 2000 Summer Olympics.
On the morning of 24th July, 1997, Amy told her husband, Steve, she was planning on running several errands in town after teaching a children's weight lifting class at the Wind River Fitness Centre. She stopped at Camera Connection, a photo store near her home in Lander, around 2:30pm after teaching her class. Following her time at the photo store, she stopped by Gallery 331, where she spoke to the proprietor, Greg Wagner. Greg noted that Amy seemed hurried, and repeatedly glanced at her watch during their conversation. Greg's was the last confirmed sighting of Amy.
After leaving the photo shop, it is believed by authorities that Amy drove to the Shoshone National Forest to practice the course of an upcoming 10k run she was enrolled to compete in. According to an eyewitness driving on Loop Road through the forest that afternoon, a woman resembling Amy was seen running along the road wearing black shorts similar to those she had worn earlier that day.
At 4:30pm, Steve returned home after having spent the day with a friend and found his wife absent. At 10:30pm, he called police to report his wife missing. At 1:00am on the morning of 25th July, Amy's car, a white Toyota Tercel, was discovered parked on a turnout at Burnt Gulch in Lander.

By 3:00am on 25th July, 1997, an extensive search for Amy was underway from law enforcement, as well as Steve and the couple's friends and family. By 27th July, police were receiving roughly 1,000 calls per day with tips and potential leads in Amy's disappearance; additionally, various lakes and mines were searched with no results.
Investigators initially believed Amy to have fallen victim to the elements or potentially been attacked by a bear or mountain lion; however, they later suspected Steve after uncovering a series of his journals describing violence towards woman and specifically, his wife. Detectives interrogated Steve on 1st August 1997, falsely claiming to have evidence proving he had murdered his wife; in response, Steve terminated the interview. He would later claim the journals had comprised song lyrics he had written for his band, and that they were unrelated to Amy or her disappearance. In 1998, local police stated that Steve was not a central suspect in the case, but that they had wanted to clear him of suspicion in order to follow other leads, which they were unable to do after his lack of cooperation. Steve provided an alibi for the time of Amy's disappearance, which was corroborated by friends who agreed they had spent the afternoon with him rock climbing. However, on the advice of criminal defence attorney Kent Spence, Steve refused to submit to a polygraph test. Additionally, a woman driving through the area from where Amy disappeared claimed to have seen a truck matching Steve's in the area.
In later August 1997, the FBI requested satellite photos from NASA of the area on the day of Amy's disappearance, but the satellite images provided no information. In January 1998, satellite images taken by the Russian space station Mir were also obtained by the FBI, but they also revealed nothing of note.
In June 2003, a Timex Iron Man digital watch was discovered by a doctor hiking near the Popo Agie River and was turned in to police. It was noted to be similar to a watch Amy had owned at the time of her disappearance; however, law enforcement was unable to determine whether or not the watch belonged to her.
In a 2007 interview with the Billings Gazette, Sheriff Sgt. Roger Rizor stated: "I believe it was a homicide, and I believe what happened to her happened on the day she disappeared. In my mind there is only one person that I want to talk to, only one person who has refused to talk to law enforcement, and that's her husband."
Dale Wayne Eaton, a convicted murderer on Wyoming's death row, has also been cited as a suspect in the case. According to Dale's brother, he had been near the area where Amy disappeared at the time of her disappearance. However, Dale has refused to discuss the case.