43-Year-Old Riverton Woman Found Dead In Burned-Out Trailer

A trailer fire in which a 43-year-old woman was found dead Friday north of Riverton remains under investigation, authorities say.

No one else was found dead or injured in the blaze, Riverton Volunteer Fire Department (RVFD) Chief Jesse Cassity told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.

The state fire marshal's office is investigating the origin and cause of the fire, Cassity said.

Five RVFD units and 16 firefighters responded just after 8 p.m. Friday to a fire at 64 Snowberry Lane, where a trailer home was “fully engulfed,” said Cassity.

“We were able to hold it at one alarm and get it extinguished and overhauled,” said Cassity.

He noted that a neighbor’s porch was singed while the blaze was active, leaving “very moderate, very light damage.”

Cassity and Fremont County Undersheriff Mike Hutchison both declined Monday to identify the woman found dead, deferring to the Fremont County Coroner’s Office.

Fremont County Coroner Chief Deputy Tony Simmers said his office has notified next-of-kin of the fatality, but he declined to release the decedent’s identity as the case is under investigation.

That’s an operating practice by which the Fremont County Coroner’s Office diverges from common practice throughout the state. Other coroners generally will release a decedent’s name after notifying next-of-kin.

A GoFundMe page by local woman named Rosalia Warren claims the woman who died is a family member, in the GoFundMe narrative.

The Way The Hudson Fire Haunts Us

Hutchison emphasized that in fire fatalities, it’s especially important to let the coroner investigate.

“Obviously, in a fire death you have to wait for the coroner to do a very thorough examination to make sure there aren’t wounds or trauma (incurred) prior to the death — and if the death was caused by the fire,” he said.

Hutchison did not specifically cite the case, but prominent in Fremont County memory is the high-profile 2011 double homicide in which the killers almost passed off two stabbing murders as arson in the tiny town of Hudson.

But so far, said Hutchison, he doesn’t have indications of suspicious happenings in Friday’s fire, though it’s too early to make a definitive statement.

Contact Clair McFarland at clair@cowboystatedaily.com

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.