Move Over Milk Cartons: Now Wyoming Coffee Shops Are Putting Faces On Your Lattes

Coffee shops across Wyoming are putting photos of missing Wyoming people on coffee sleeves in an attempt to help solve cold cases—reviving the national campaign that put missing children on milk cartons decades ago. “Somebody knows something,” said Stacy Koester, founder and president of the Gillette-based nonprofit WyoFind. “People do not just vanish. And that’s our biggest goal, for somebody to say something. The smallest tip can literally break open a whole case.”

The idea came from board member Nicki Hughes, who heard about another organization putting stickers on coffee sleeves. “We reached out to a couple local people in Gillette, and then it kind of just blew up,” she said. So far, 28 coffee shops around the state have agreed to put the sleeves on their cups. There are a dozen variations, each with details about a missing person in Wyoming.

Koester said the oldest missing persons case in Wyoming dates to June 28, 1963, when 16-year-old Lynn Dianne Olson disappeared from her grandparents’ dude ranch in Sublette County. But it was the 2022 disappearance of Irene Gakwa, who vanished without a trace from Gillette, that catalyzed the formation of WyoFind. Gakwa’s boyfriend has been convicted of financial crimes related to her disappearance but has not been charged otherwise. Her brother, Kennedy Wainaina, is now a WyoFind board member. “Living 800 miles away, we would not have been able to do all this,” he said of the volunteers who became “feet on the ground” in Gillette.

There are now 73 missing persons cases in Wyoming that are more than a year old. The all-volunteer WyoFind board includes an electrical engineer, a warehouse technician, a groundskeeper, a retired criminal defense attorney, a small business owner, a pharmacist, and a retired police detective. Each member is trained in different areas, including backcountry search and rescue, first aid, and water rescue. They fundraise and accept donations—each box of 1,000 sleeves costs roughly $78, and each coffee shop receives between 250 and 500 per month. “We’re working on getting a lot more made,” Koester said. “We actually have 11,000 stickers sitting on the counter ready for us to get them done.”

One of the participating coffee shops is Buckin’ Brew in Mills. Manager Abriel VanValkenburg said the café started “WyoFind Wednesday,” sharing missing person cases each week. “The thought of someone you love simply vanishing without answers is heartbreaking,” she said. “Turning something people see every single morning into a conversation starter is powerful. A face on a sleeve might spark a memory, a discussion, or help keep someone’s story alive instead of forgotten.” She added that one customer comes in every morning asking for a different sleeve because she wants to read every story.

Koester said the goal is to be in every city in Wyoming, focusing on family-owned coffee shops. “Our goal is actually to make sure the families of the missing know that their person isn’t forgotten,” she said. The group’s website includes an anonymous tip line that goes straight to law enforcement. “Say somebody goes to that coffee shop and they recognize that person on the sleeve,” said board member Matt Hughes. “They say, ‘Wait a minute, I know some of this information.’ And it might break the case.”