TORRINGTON – Aug. 9, 2004 was the last time anyone reportedly had contact with Goshen County’s only missing person, Renee Yeargain. She was 24 at the time and was deemed missing on Aug. 10 when Yeargain’s boyfriend at the time, Josh Minter, told law enforcement she had left and taken a grocery sack full of clothing with her and refused to say where she was going. 

“Two days later, on August 12, 2004, Yeargain’s white 1987 [sic] Subaru station wagon was found at a rest stop (Meriden) between Cheyenne and Torrington, Wyoming,” the report reads from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) (namus.nij.jp.gov). “Her keys, cellular phone, and her purse, which contained her wallet, checkbook and other items, were inside the vehicle. No money was found and Yeargain’s tattoo kit and clothing were also missing. The car had been parked at the rest area since August 10, 2004.”

Yeargain was described as a 5 foot, 8-inch, 135-pound female with red hair at the time of her disappearance, though her hair color could be different as she may have changed her hair color often or wore wigs. Without coloring, her hair is said to be brown. She has blue eyes and may have worn tinted contact lenses. She was known to wear white (zombie) contact lenses and tiger-eye contact lenses. 

Yeargain had multiple tattoos: a partial nun on her upper arm, two dominatrices on her other arm, an incomplete tattoo of roses on her chest, a tribal ring around her wrist, lettering on her upper fingers, a small gesture on her abdomen, incomplete tattoos of blueberries and vines on both claves and a tattoo with the outline of a woman’s face with horns elsewhere on her body. 

At the time of her disappearance, she was believed to be wearing blue jeans and a black tank top with a red bug and heart. She may have had tattooing equipment and extra clothes with her at the time of her disappearance. 

The Torrington Police Department (TPD), Goshen County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO), Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and NamUs have cases established for Yeargain, while TPD remains the investigating agency with authority over the case. 

It wasn’t until Friday, April 15, 2005 that an article prominently appeared on the front page of the Torrington Telegram headlined, “Torrington woman missing since August.” The article was written by Denise Heilbrun, now Denise Heilbrun-Ellis. 

“The story the Torrington Police Department got from her boyfriend of three years, Josh Minter, was that she had left and abandoned her four children on Aug. 9,” Heilbrun wrote. “He reportedly took three of the kids to former foster parents, then they called the Department of Family Services the day following her departure. Minter kept the infant since it is his and Yeargain’s son together.”

According to the article, the next day, Aug. 10, was when TPD’s Detective Lieutenant Jeff Lamm opened the missing person’s case.

“Wyoming Highway Patrol told the Torrington Police Department the car had been parked there since Aug. 10,” the article reads. “’Her mother came in on Aug. 13 and spoke to the chief (Billy Janes), and that’s when we opened the case,’ Lamm said. ‘We since then have tracked down numerous leads, which have [led] nowhere.’”

Yeargain’s mother, Diane Van Horn maintained, at the time, her daughter wouldn’t have left and not reached out to her. Despite Van Horn acknowledging a history of drug abuse, Van Horn told reporters she had been working to rehabilitate her life.

If you know anything about Yeargain’s disappearance, please contact the Torrington Police Department at 307-5322-7001 or Wyoming DCI at 307-777-7181.