Crime and Courts

Neighbors discover Wyoming murders, leads to quick arrests of suspects

Posted: Mar 3, 2013 8:29 PM by David Jay - MTN News

CLARK, WY - Neighbors say they never expected anything like the murders on Big View Road to happen in their wide open rural community.
"Shock is the only word I can think, " said Robert Bushman, Jr. "We're still stunned."
The Park County Sheriff's Office received a call from a neighbor around 11:15 Saturday morning that two people had been shot inside a home.
Deputies and paramedics responded and a third body was found in the basement.
The victims are Ildiko Freitas, 40, and her father Janos Vogyessi, 69 and her mother Hildegard Volgyessi, 70. Park County Sheriff Scott Steward says all three were Clark residents. A neighbor says Ildiko's husband was not home.
Shortly after responding, the Wyoming Highway Patrol and the Park County Sheriff's Office arrested Stephen Hammer, 19, and Tanner Vanpelt, 18, both from Cody.
"This is nothing short of cold blooded murder," Steward said in a news release.
Bushman and his wife came from Baltimore, around the same time as Ildiko Freitas and her husband moved to Clark.
"Real nice people," Bushman said. "They'll always help you out when you need help with something. We're all just neighbors."
At some point Saturday, one car in on this road and two cars went speeding out on Big View Road.
"What I heard from the neighbor who saw, a car pulled up to the house," Bushman said. "And 20 minutes later, the car and the homeowners car went down the road."
The neighbors who saw the cars did not want to do an interview, but Bushman described what they told him.
"They seemed to know where they were going from what she thought," Bushman said.
Another neighbor noticed the Freitas family's dogs walking away from home.
"The neighbor picked up the one dog and took it back to the house," Bushman said. "And the neighbor is the one who found the crime scene itself. Unbeknownst to him he walked into something. I could tell just by the expressions on their faces yesterday. They were shocked)."
Sheriff Steward says alert neighbors helped law enforcement quickly apprehend Hammer and Vanpelt, both from Cody.
"I attribute the quick apprehension of the suspects to alert neighbors and the swift actions of members of the Park County Sheriff's Office and the Troopers of the Wyoming State Patrol," Steward said.
"If it weren't for the neighbors, who knows when (the crime) would have been found," Bushman said. "Damn shame, really. why did it have to happen. it just doesn't make any sense."
The Wyoming State Crime Lab and the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation are helping with the investigation.
Sheriff Steward says Hammer and Vanpelt will appear in court Tuesday, to face charges of murder and other crimes.