Lynne Marie Kunc Poole was a 58-year-old white female from Cheyenne, Wyoming, a lifelong local who had worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield and was known in her circle as “Vic Lynne.” In the summer of 2016, the ordinary rhythm of her life fell quiet enough to alarm the people who loved her—family members told investigators they hadn't seen or heard from Lynne or her husband, Duane Poole, since about the middle of July.
On Sunday, August 7, 2016, deputies were sent to their home in the 10,000 block of Smoking Oak Road, northwest of Cheyenne, after those concerns finally turned into a welfare check. What they found suggested a house deliberately sealed off from the world: doors and windows screwed shut from the inside, smoke detectors covered with aluminum foil and duct tape. With no easy entry at ground level, deputies used a ladder to reach a second-story window and climbed in.
Upstairs, in the bathroom area, they discovered two bodies and a dead dog. Another dog—a German shepherd—was still alive in the garage and was turned over to family. Investigators said the scene appeared to be a murder-suicide: Duane Poole, 63, was believed to have shot Lynne and the dog with a 9mm handgun before taking his own life. There were no arrests, because the only identified suspect was dead at the scene.
Even then, the case carried a grim uncertainty about time. Deputies could not immediately determine when the shootings occurred, and investigators noted signs suggesting it may have happened weeks earlier, consistent with the family's account that Lynne had been out of contact since mid-July. Autopsies were performed and the investigation remained open while toxicology results were pending, with officials saying those results could take months.
