What local and regional stories you were reading in 2024
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2024 was a year of surprises, tragedy and bravery. Oh, and crabgrass.
Here are the most popular local and regional stories for this year. Click on each headline to read its article.
10. Managing crabgrass in your lawn
This article showed methods to combat a “common and frustrating weed that can quickly overrun lawns.” With so many of you interested in this, we expect to see more lawns that are beautiful and thriving in 2025!
9. Reminder issued to pet owners after dog arrives at shelter in a ‘sticky’ situation
We really felt for this pooch who had a run-in with a porcupine! If your dog ever finds itself in a similar predicament, you may want to refer back to this article on how to remove the quills.
8. Body of Dylan Rounds found in remote Utah desert, family says
The body of Dylan Rounds, a man from eastern Idaho who had been missing for nearly two years, was recovered in a remote part of northern Utah near the Nevada line in April. James Brenner, who was convicted of killing him, was sentenced in June to spend three to 30 years in prison.
7. An 85-year-old woman was handcuffed to a chair during an armed home invasion. She killed the robber and survived.
Christine Jenneiahn, 85, shot and killed Derek Condon after he broke into her Bingham County home in the middle of the night — despite the fact that she was threatened, hit, handcuffed to a chair and shot multiple times. The county prosecuting attorney ruled Condon’s death as “justifiable homicide” and called Jenneiahn’s survival “truly incredible.” Read more details here.
6. School closures in January
In January in east Idaho, it’s not a matter of if weather will prompt schools to close, but when. You were most interested in school closures on Jan. 10 and 12.
5. Tourists crowd grizzly to film it — and block its path in Yellowstone. See tense moment.
Yellowstone “tourons” will never cease to amaze us.
4. She died in a horrific crash and her best friend was critically injured. Why Abbi Bischoff’s mom says it was ‘1,000% preventable.’
Twenty-year-old Abbi Bischoff was killed and her friend Skye Hackman was badly hurt when a driver slammed into them while their vehicle was stopped at a red light. When Bischoff’s mother learned that the driver that hit them had dementia, she described it as “like a punch to the stomach. She should not have been driving.”
3. WATCH: Biscuit Basin closed in Yellowstone National Park after massive explosion
Biscuit Basin was temporarily closed after hydrothermal explosion did damage to the area, including the boardwalks. No one was hurt. Park staff emphasized that the blast did “not reflect activity within volcanic system.” In other words, Yellowstone’s supervolcano was not about to decimate civilization. More on the end of the world as we know it here.
2. Two hunters who shot 530-pound grizzly 24 times share their stunning story of survival
Dangling from the jaws of a 530-pound grizzly, 20-year-old Riley Hill’s body flung from side-to-side as his hunting buddy Braxton Meyers fired round after round into the bear’s hulking frame. The grizzly’s ferocious teeth sunk deep into his arm, puncturing the skin to the bone, as he screamed and fought back during the longest 30 seconds of his life.
1. Daybell case
This year, Chad Daybell was found guilty of killing his first wife, Tammy Daybell, as well as Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, the two children of his second wife, Lori Vallow Daybell. He was sentenced to death.
But as significant as Chad Daybell’s conviction and sentencing were, neither was the most-clicked Daybell story on EastIdahoNews.com in 2024. That goes to an article titled “‘We’re done!’ Judge sanctions attorney who filed last minute, error-filled motion to have Daybell case delayed.” Judge Steven Boyce less than thrilled with Mountain Home lawyer Terry Ratliff tried to slow down the court proceedings, and it seemed many of you felt the same way.
Lori Daybell, previously convicted and sentenced in Idaho, will stand trial in Arizona, where she faces two charges of conspiracy to commit murder in connection to her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and her former nephew-in-law, Brandon Boudreaux. We will continue to follow her case in 2025.
