Nineteen-year-old Acacia Jade “Kaish” Colvin, a white woman from Casper, Wyoming, spent the last day of her life riding in a red Honda with two men she knew, 27-year-old Kameron Young-Johnson and 26-year-old Luke Thomas Young. According to court records and later testimony, the trio drove out of Casper on August 9, 2022, making stops in small Wyoming towns, including Worland, to deliver fentanyl.
Along the way they used methamphetamine, and the mood in the car deteriorated as the two men argued and tensions rose. Colvin grew increasingly uneasy with the situation; investigators later testified that she reached out to people on her phone that day, saying she was uncomfortable and asking for a ride home away from the men and their escalating conflict.
Late that night, near the Natrona County Airport on Highway 20/26 west of Casper, the red Honda came up behind a motorcyclist heading home. The rider pulled into the right lane to let the slower car pass. Instead, he told authorities, the Honda suddenly jerked to the side of the road as if it had struck something, prompting him to slow down and pull over to see if the driver needed help. In the dim light along the rural highway, he saw a young woman—later identified as Colvin—rush out of the passenger side, screaming toward the open driver's door. As he drew closer, he saw a man in the back seat holding a handgun. The man turned the weapon on the motorcyclist, who, realizing the danger, sped away and called 911; as he fled, he heard gunshots ring out behind him.
Deputies from the Natrona County Sheriff's Office responded to the report of a shooting just after 11 p.m. on August 9, 2022. When they arrived on Highway 20/26, they found two people dead near the road: 19-year-old Acacia Colvin and 27-year-old Kameron Young-Johnson, both from Casper. The Natrona County Coroner formally identified them the next day in a public release, noting that autopsies were being conducted as part of an active double-homicide investigation.
Almost immediately, investigators focused on Luke Thomas Young. At the time of the killings, Young had recently walked away from a Wyoming Department of Corrections community corrections program in Campbell County, failing to return from his place of employment on August 4. A felony escape warrant had been issued days before the shootings. After Colvin and Young-Johnson were found dead, the Natrona County Sheriff's Office circulated Young's name and photograph as a person of interest and launched a large-scale search that included road closures around the crime scene. On August 10, a citizen reported suspicious activity northwest of Casper, and deputies located Young in the area of 7 Mile Road and 6WN Road. He was taken into custody without incident and initially held on the escape warrant while investigators continued building the homicide case.
As the investigation progressed, authorities tied Young to the shootings through the surviving witness, physical evidence, and his own statements. By late August 2022, the Natrona County Sheriff's Office announced that it had recommended two counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated assault to prosecutors, all related to the deaths of Colvin and Young-Johnson and the gun being pointed at the motorcyclist. In January 2023, Young appeared in Natrona County District Court and pleaded not guilty to all charges, an arraignment that carried the possibility of life in prison or even the death penalty if the state chose to pursue it.
Within two months, the legal course of the case changed dramatically. On March 3, 2023, Young stood before Judge Joshua Eames and changed his plea to guilty on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated assault. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to seek life sentences instead of the death penalty. Young also agreed to tell investigators where they could find the pistol used in the killings, which had not been recovered. In court, he gave a stark description of what happened that night: he said the three of them had been dealing fentanyl and using methamphetamine during the day, and that as they drove back toward Casper he became agitated and paranoid, believing the pair in the front seats were whispering about him. He described pulling out his. 40-caliber handgun, demanding to be let out, and then firing. The car veered to the side of the road, Colvin scrambled out screaming, and Young continued shooting—killing the driver, Young-Johnson, and then firing multiple rounds at Colvin as she tried to escape, before turning the gun on the approaching motorcyclist, who sped away.
Sentencing came in June 2023. In a Natrona County courtroom filled with grieving family members, the judge imposed life in prison without the possibility of parole on the murder counts, along with punishment for the aggravated assault, ensuring that Young will spend the rest of his life behind bars. During the hearing, Colvin's family described the weight of the loss: Acacia had been only weeks away from her twentieth birthday and left behind two young sons who would grow up without their mother. Her younger sister spoke of the emotional toll and the way her life had been upended since the shooting, while her mother addressed Young directly, saying that no sentence could restore what had been taken on that dark stretch of highway outside Casper. The double homicide that claimed Acacia Jade “Kaish” Colvin and Kameron Young-Johnson is now legally resolved, but the impact of that August night continues to echo through the lives of their families and the broader community.
