Left for dead, shooting victim shares her story

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — A Star Valley woman was shot last month and left to die. Miraculously, she recovered. And now she’s talking.

As a news agency, we were at the very least concerned to learn no arrests had been made more than a month after the incident, and frustrated to receive nothing from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office as to any progress on the investigation.

To date, the silence from law enforcement continues, but the victim is sharing her side of the story. And it is shocking.

Brittney background

Brittney* reached out to Jackson Hole Press because we were the only news gatherers to even bother to look into her story. She offered to give an account of what happened. This is an effort to tell one woman’s story—her struggle with a crumbling marriage, battles with drugs, and the never-ending fear she alone is to bear the weight of it all.

To be fair, Brittney herself is not without her own hangups and history. She has her critics. But she has been nothing but forthcoming with us and at all times believable.

Brittney’s upbringing was not the greatest. She married at the age of 16 to get away from her father, who was one day shot down outside Colter’s Lodge in Afton. The shooter never spent a day in jail.

Brittney and Jeff* married on the town square in Jackson under the elk antler arches in 2015—the second marriage for both. Judge Tom Jordan performed the ceremony. The couple has three kids together—the youngest girls ages 4 and 2.

The relationship deteriorated when drugs became involved. Brittney says both her and her husband imbibed. She eventually got clean, he got worse. When pressed to disassociate with his “druggy friends” Jeff refused or made empty promises.

“He was an amazing man until he wasn’t. He was such a good man, so handsome,” Brittney said during an interview recently. Frequently, during our conversations, Brittney became easily winded, gulping for air at times and often pausing to break down in tears.

“But my husband is on drugs. He needs help,” Brittney said. “And the company that he’s been keeping just is not good, they’re dangerous. I love him very, very much. And I miss him very much. And I want him to know that it is not too late to fix his life.”

During several sessions with Brittney, it became evident she both hates and loves her husband, often at the same time. Recalling certain incidents, she would become enraged at his behavior. Other times, Brittney sounded truly frightened for her personal safety. And, still again, she would often come around to remembering who Jeff was and why she still loves him.

“He wouldn’t get straight, and he became scarier and scarier,” Brittney said. “He is a mastermind at manipulation. He is sneaky and can be very believable.”

At some point during the rockiest part of the marriage, Brittney sought a restraining order against her husband and the couple began living apart.

Brittney prepared for a life on her own with her two youngest children. She enrolled in a Climb Wyoming program to obtain her CDL. She got counseling at the Community Safety Network and First Baptist Church in Jackson.

“I just withdrew from everyone” Brittney said.

During that time apart, Brittney alleges Jeff started seeing other women. While her husband made a reported $7k a month in construction, Brittney says she and the kids never saw a dime of it.

The shooting

Things came to a head one night on April 14.

Jeff surprised his wife with a visit. He admitted to having a girlfriend and said he wanted to check into rehab. He sounded remorseful to Brittney, but it was too good to be true.

“I told him to break it off with the new girlfriend and be diligent and clear about it. I didn’t want anyone to have to go through the pain I was going through,” Brittney remembers. “He said he would and we watched a movie and I cooked dinner for us.”

After a while, Jeff left in Brittney’s car to pick up his paycheck. It was just around the corner and he was supposed to come right back but he didn’t. He texted her updates and then stopped. Hours went by and nothing.

“That’s something he would do, go dark for hours when he was about to do something shitty,” Brittney said.

When Jeff finally answered, Brittney simply said she needed her car back. Jeff said come get it. Brittney found it parked next to the girlfriend’s car near a camper she knew the two of them spent time in.

Brittney walked there to the trailer park. It was about 3am. She banged on the door. No answer.

“I said, ‘I know you are in there and what you are doing. I am going to call the police,’” Brittney yelled. She banged again, harder this time, and the window in the door broke.

A female voice from inside the camper responded.

“Back away from the door and I will give you the keys,” the voice said.

Brittney stepped back and waited. Minutes went by and no one opened the door.

Then the silence was shattered by gunshots. Brittney said she never heard them, just felt herself flying through the air. Police reports allegedly confirm at least four shots fired in the incident. Brittney was hit twice in the back.

The next thing Brittney remembers is lying on the ground in pain.

“I heard the voice of my dead dad saying, ‘Get up and walk,’” Brittney recalled.

She crawled to the porch of the trailer park attendant, someone Brittney says she has known for 20 years but that relationship soured when the man—we’ll call him Ed*—sided with Jeff on almost every occasion because, Brittney claims, he deals drugs.

Ed answered the door and reportedly kicked Brittney in the face and let his dogs bite her. He called 911 and reported a trespasser on the property.

From her last text to her husband while knocking on the door of the camper, to police transcripts documenting their arrival on scene, Brittney estimates she spent an hour lying bleeding in the dirt.

“He left me there to die,” Brittney stammered out through sobs. “No matter what had come between us, I couldn’t believe that.”

The recovery, investigation

Brittney spent weeks at Eastern Idaho Medical Center undergoing multiple surgeries. Two .45 caliber slugs had entered Brittney’s body from behind. Sixty percent of her liver was destroyed. Initially, she was given a 10% of survival.

A month later, after release, Brittney is trying to regain the proper use of her left hand. Brain bleed has altered her speech. It was noticeably slurred during our conversations. The mother of two young ones undergoes regular physical therapy in Idaho Falls.

We may never know who the shooter was. Cops aren’t saying and Brittney never saw it. Surveillance footage was pulled but the video was too dark to make out anything useful.

Piecing it together, Brittney believes she was shot by a woman named Rita*. Brittney claims Rita has a violent criminal history and once shot at a police officer. JH Press could not verify this claim.

Rita is allegedly the new girlfriend of Jeff, not the one he was supposedly with inside the camper.

“I think Rita had been watching me from across the street. I didn’t even know anyone was behind me,” Brittney said.

Brittney’s story doesn’t jive with what investigation reports turned up. Again, without cooperation from LCSO, these reports are hearsay from the victim herself. Brittney said the investigation revealed shots fired from inside the camper at an unknown trespasser. Her husband and girlfriend claim they were defending themselves from what they perceived as an armed intruder.

Brittney claims the shots came from behind her and further alleges two of the bullets that missed her were lodged in the camper, which was removed from the property and went missing days after the incident.

Brittney feared for her life and the safety of her children enough to file a stalking/restraining order against Rita, who Brittney says has since been seen with her husband driving her car.

In the weeks following the incident, Brittney says law enforcement has been close to useless.

“Lincoln County is just awful,” she says. “I don’t know if it’s corruption, incompetence, or they just don’t care about certain people with certain last names.”

The investigation is reportedly being headed by Trey Andrews, who reports to Cpt. Brian Andrews, his dad.

“This was a conspiracy to commit murder,” Brittney claims, sharing evidence of texts between her, her husband, and Rita.

During an interview with Swift Radio, Cpt. Andrews referred to the shooting as a “domestic” issue.

But Brittney belies it is far from an isolated incident. She called the shooting further evidence of systemic drug culture violence permeating Star Valley and Eastern Idaho.

When Brittney saw JH Press’ story about the murder of Morey Pelton at a Swan Valley rest stop, she again came forward to share what she knew. She claims Pelton was a well-known drug dealer. She also said her husband would frequently meet Pelton at that same stop to buy drugs.

Brittney stopped short of saying her husband or Rita might have been involved in the killing but said she “wouldn’t be surprised.”

The days ahead

Brittney’s days are now filled with trying to make something of her shattered life. She needs a job to support her two kids and pay medical and legal bills.

Her car and most of her belongings were taken by her husband, she says. He allegedly cut the locks off their shared storage unit and replaced them with one of his own.

Justice is probably too much to expect from law enforcement in Lincoln County, Brittney says. She’ll settle for a little sunlight being the best disinfectant.

“I lived for a reason, and maybe it’s to make sure this type of thing doesn’t happen anymore. It shouldn’t happen to anyone,” she said.

Brittney launched a Facebook page to tell her story and encourage others to come forward with their shared experiences concerning Star Valley law enforcement. The site picked up over a hundred members in weeks.

Brittney’s latest post shows a woman still trying to find her way.

“Sometimes it’s hard to not be spiteful. I know that I’ve said things online that I probably shouldn’t have said. But I’m human and I lash out I get angry. I get mad. I get sad. I get happy. I get emotional. I hurt and I feel good and I love. If that does not apply to everybody in this world then I’m going to have to say they aren’t human. But each day I’m just striving to be a better person,” she wrote.

---

*Jackson Hole Press chooses to use pseudonyms to protect the identity of all involved.