Officials Scaling Back Search for Homicide Suspect Around Bridger-Teton

Officials are scaling back a search for a triple homicide suspect seen entering Grand Teton National Park last month.

The Teton County Sheriff’s Office, in conjunction with several other state and federal agencies, continue to search for Gerald “Mike” Bullinger, 60, who is wanted in connection with the deaths of three people—including his wife.

The three victims were found in a barn on Bullinger’s property in Caldwell, Idaho. Bullinger was seen entering Grand Teton in mid-June. A car registered to his wife was found at the Pacific Creek campground in Bridger-Teton National Park this month.

A photo of Bullinger is below, courtesy of the Sheriff’s Office.

According to the Jackson Hole News & Guide, two weeks of aggressive searching (including cadaver dogs) have turned up nothing. “We’re scaling back our search efforts unless there are new leads identified,” Teton County Sheriff’s Lt. Matt Carr said Tuesday. “The investigative efforts will still continue.”

According to the Guide, Bullinger entered the park through the Moran entrance in mid-June:

“The last spot we can place him is coming in that entrance gate on the 11th,” Carr said.

The car likely sat at the campground for a month before it was reported. There are no records of him paying for a campsite.

Federal, state and local investigators have combed the area, but the fugitive hasn’t been seen since.

The Pacific Creek campground and other area closures were lifted as of Tuesday, Carr said.

“We’re relying on the public to provide us with our next lead,” Carr said. “We still have the posters out there.”

The investigation spans at least 600 miles and several states, because Bullinger likely fled Caldwell, Idaho, and headed to his other home in Ogden, Utah, police said. There was a confirmed sighting of him there before his car was found in Teton County.

Another challenge investigators face is that Bullinger’s description — 60 years old with gray hair, brown eyes, 6-feet, 1-inch tall, 240 pounds — is very average.

“He looks like most grandpas,” Carr said.

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Bullinger is accused of killing his wife Cheryl Baker, 57, and two women who haven’t been positively identified.

Though not confirmed, the other bodies are reportedly those of Bullinger’s girlfriend, Nadja Medley, and her teenage daughter, Payton Medley.

On June 19 a Canyon County, Idaho, deputy responded to a welfare check at Bullinger’s Caldwell property and found the bodies in the shed. All three were shot, according to the coroner.

Physical evidence has been collected, and police are awaiting DNA results before they issue a felony murder warrant for Bullinger’s arrest. That means he’s currently wanted for failing to report the deaths.

“We’ve got a lot of evidence out right now,” said Marv Dashiell, chief deputy with the Canyon County sheriff’s office. “Some we’re able to do in our own lab. Some we’ve sent out to the state.”

They’re hoping to have DNA results back within the next week, he said.

The Sheriff’s Office has investigated 64 tips so far, according to the Guide. Anyone with information about Bullinger’s whereabouts should call 911 or the Teton County Sheriff’s dispatch at 307-733-2331.