A Times investigative reporter, Kim Barker, revisits the murder of Shelli Wiley — a long-unsolved case from Kim’s time in high school. She reaches out to Shelli’s family to understand why the police arrested a man named Fred Lamb for Shelli’s murder in 2016, and why prosecutors abruptly dropped the charges against him.
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Years ago when I was a teenager, I lived in Laramie, Wyoming.
I've always remembered it as a mean town.
Uncommonly mean, a place of jagged edges and cold people, where the wind blew so hard it actually whipped pebbles at you, actually pushed trucks off the highway.
Laramie stood at an elevation of more than 7,000ft and got so socked in by winter storms it felt like we were trapped, like there was no way out.
My family moved away before my senior year in high school.
I never wanted to go back.
The town's only high school, Laramie High, was grim, even by normal high school standards.
One of my classmates killed someone.
Other students killed themselves.
Some boys were held down and branded with letters like they were livestock.
Coaches who caught guys fighting in the hallways, made them fight for real in a makeshift ring.