Car of man sought in Caldwell triple killings found near Teton National Park

A white Ford Focus with Utah plates described in wanted notices for Gerald Michael Bullinger, 60, has been found in Wyoming, the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.

Detectives want to speak with Bullinger regarding the murders of two women and a girl at his rural Caldwell home. Their bodies were found on June 19; authorities launched a public search for Bullinger two days later.

The Focus was discovered July 12 near Moran, “in a remote campground in the Bridger-Teton National Forest,” the Sheriff’s Office announced. The campground is near the border of Grand Teton National Park.

The car may have been in the area for about three weeks before someone told law enforcement about it, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Investigators have examined the vehicle, but aren’t saying anything about what they found. The Sheriff’s Office has taken a tight-lipped approach to information in order to prevent Bullinger from learning anything about what investigators know.

Bullinger faces a felony charge of failure to report three deaths on his property. He is considered a “person of interest” in the murders, and no homicide charges have been filed in the case.

Only one of the three female victims — Bullinger’s wife, Cheryl Baker, 56 — has been positively identified. Investigators said all three females, ranging in age from early teens to mid-50s, had been shot and placed in a shed on Bullinger’s property, apparently a week or two before Canyon County sheriff’s deputies discovered them.

Friends of massage therapist Nadja Medley, 47, and her 14-year-old daughter, Payton, have told the Statesman that they fear the two are the other victims. Medley appeared to also be in a relationship with Bullinger, and had posted on her Facebook page that she and Bullinger were moving into the Caldwell house together.

The Canyon County Coroner’s Office said Monday that the two other victims have not been officially identified yet.

The only verified sighting of Bullinger that investigators have disclosed occurred around June 11 in Ogden, Utah, where he previously lived and still owns property.

Bullinger is a pilot and motorcycle enthusiast who owned mules and used them for backcountry trips, according to Byron Baker and online records.

Police are using cadaver dogs and helicopters in the search for Bullinger around the Teton National Forest, according to KIVI-TV News. They are also monitoring Jackson Hole and its airport, which is about a mile away.

Anyone with any information about Bullinger’s whereabouts should call their local law enforcement or the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office, 208-454-7510.

This story was originally published July 17, 2017 at 10:57 AM with the headline "Car of man sought in Caldwell triple killings found near Teton National Park."