In the pre-dawn hours of August 7, 1977, a powerful explosion tore through the quiet streets of Evanston, Wyoming, obliterating a family home and ending three lives. Among the victims was 18-year-old John Vehar, a young man on the verge of adulthood. He was killed as he slept, alongside his respected parents, Vincent and Beverly Vehar. The blast was no accident; it was a targeted act of violence that shattered the community and unraveled a complex story of revenge and murder-for-hire.
John’s father, Vincent Vehar, 67, was a prominent local figure and a long-serving former Uinta County attorney. At the time of his death, he was representing a local water board in a contentious lawsuit against a man named Mark Hopkinson. The dispute involved thousands of dollars in unpaid fees, and Hopkinson was scheduled to be deposed by Vincent just two days after the bombing. This legal battle proved to be the motive for the horrific crime that claimed the lives of Vincent, his wife Beverly, and their youngest son, John.
The force of the explosion, caused by approximately 30 sticks of dynamite thrown into a basement window, destroyed the Vehar home around 3:35 a.m. John’s older brother, Tony, was also in the house but was miraculously thrown clear by the blast and survived his injuries. The people of the small Wyoming town were stunned by the brutal murder of a well-known family. The investigation that followed would expose a dark conspiracy orchestrated by a man who sought to silence his legal opponent through violence.
Investigators eventually unraveled the plot, identifying Mark Hopkinson as the mastermind. Hopkinson had hired a man named Michael "Mike" Jack Hickey to carry out the bombing. Hickey, then 23, was already implicated in the 1976 murder of a 15-year-old girl, Kellie Wyckhuyse. Hopkinson used this knowledge as leverage, promising Hickey $2,000 and an alibi for the Wyckhuyse murder in exchange for killing Vincent Vehar. On the night of August 6, after receiving his orders from Hopkinson, Hickey drove to Evanston and planted the deadly bomb.
The case against Hopkinson solidified when another associate, Jeffrey Green, began cooperating with authorities. Green implicated both Hickey and Hopkinson in the Vehar bombing. Before he could testify before a grand jury, Green was found tortured and murdered in May 1979. Authorities later proved that Hopkinson had ordered Green’s murder from a federal prison cell where he was serving time on a separate charge. This act further demonstrated the lengths to which Hopkinson would go to cover his tracks.
Faced with mounting evidence, Mike Hickey confessed to both the Wyckhuyse murder and the Vehar family bombing. In a plea agreement, he agreed to testify against Hopkinson. In exchange for his testimony, Hickey was convicted of second-degree murder for the Wyckhuyse killing and received a 20-year prison sentence, with immunity from prosecution for the Vehar deaths. He was released from prison in 1999.
Thanks in large part to Hickey's testimony, Mark Hopkinson was convicted for arranging the murders of Vincent, Beverly, and John Vehar, receiving three consecutive life sentences. For orchestrating the murder of witness Jeffrey Green, Hopkinson was sentenced to death. He maintained his innocence until the end, but all appeals were exhausted. Mark Hopkinson was executed by lethal injection on January 22, 1992, the last person to be executed in Wyoming. The bombing remains one of the most infamous and violent crimes in the state's history, a tragic event that cut short the promising life of John Vehar just as it was beginning.
