17-Year-Old Casper Girl Thought Machete-Like Knife Was Fake, Then She Was Stabbed

CASPER — The 17-year-old girl who was stabbed in the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center parking lot on Halloween night said she initially thought the machete-like knife with which another teenage girl threatened her was fake.

However, when he caught her, his hand was stuck on the knife and the knife was already stuck in his stomach.

Willow Dymond Wagner told Cowboy State Daily she is grateful to those who took quick action in the parking lot around her and helped save her life.

“I just think about the positives, like I’m glad it wasn’t worse,” Wagner said. “I’m glad I thought it was fake at first, because if I thought it was real, I don’t think I would have caught it and it would have gone all the way.”

Gabriella “Bella” Aultman, also 17, had been in the parking lot with four friends for a “truck date” meeting for 10 to 15 minutes before Gabriella “Bella” Aultman got out of the passenger side of a red Durango SUV and stabbed her, Wagner said. . Aultman was allegedly provoked when Wagner kicked the SUV.

Wagner said he recognized Aultman while sitting in the vehicle because they went to middle school together. He described Aultman as a “friend” in middle school, but they had grown apart.

Wagner, now a senior in the Natrona County School District virtual learning program, said she talked to friends about how the SUV Aultman’s friend was driving “backed up really fast and almost hit me and three other people” and its windows were down.

Wagner said he kicked the truck to show there were people behind it.

‘Calm down brother, calm down’

“Bella jumped out with the machete. I immediately put my hands up,” Wagner said. “I said, ‘Calm down, bro, calm down,'” Wagner said. “There’s a video of this because this girl had a feeling there was going to be a fight.

“Then he stabbed me. I took the machete and took it out. This happened really fast. And it was like he started pulling it, but my hand was still stuck in the machete.

Wagner said the knife cut two tendons in his hand and entered his abdomen.

Wagner said it was hard to understand what happened at first, adding that he didn’t know if Aultman recognized him because other people later told him he might have been drunk.

In the statement given to the police regarding the incident, it was claimed that Aultman admitted to drinking vodka and marijuana.

What Wagner later learned was that the knife had entered his small intestine.

He said there were people who told Aultman not to do it just before he was stabbed.

“Everyone says, ‘Don’t do it, Bella.’ Don’t do that! Stop!’” Wagner said. “Then he stabbed me.”

Seeing the blood on his hand, Wagner said others asked him if Aultman had stabbed him.

That’s when he noticed blood coming from his abdomen. She was wearing a costume consisting of a white corset and a black skirt with fake blood, but now her real blood was leaking through this costume.

“Everyone was either leaving or looking at me,” he recalled. “And I said, ‘Someone should do something.’ Someone shake this, help me. I cannot die. I was like, bring everyone back to reality while I’m bleeding out.

“Then there were a few people who helped and called the police or something. And it was really cool.”

15 Year Old Respondent

One of the people who helped save his life was a 15-year-old sophomore at Glenrock High School named Raelee Blaylock.

Blaylock said he arrived at the parking lot about five minutes ago, turned around and talked to people about the incident, and heard someone being stabbed. He estimates he was 15 or 20 feet away.

Blaylock said he ran there and saw Wagner’s hand and blood on his abdomen.

“I took my shirt off, wrapped it around his hand and applied pressure,” Cowboy told State Daily. “When he repeatedly said to me, ‘Don’t kill me, I can’t die,’ I started praying there with him.

“And right there I realized that everything was in God’s hands, I was just a factor in the moment. …And then 911 came.”

Both of his parents were in the medical field, Blaylock said. His father is a former EMT and his mother is a former sheriff’s deputy. He recalled his parents’ words that when it came to wounds, “You want to put pressure on them and make sure they stay conscious until someone else comes along.”

Someone else placed a jacket around Wagner’s abdomen to stop bleeding there, Blaylock said.

“I wasn’t really paying much attention to it, I was just trying to keep it conscious,” he said.

‘He Didn’t Deserve to Be Alone’

The 15-year-old said he knew all of the teenagers involved in the recent violence in Casper and that Wagner “didn’t deserve to be alone while fighting for his life.”

When he arrived at the parking lot, Blaylock said there were about 20 vehicles in the parking lot, but everyone started leaving after the stabbing.

He said he understands the event to be a “truck meetup” where young people come together and kids can look at trucks. He stopped to say “hello” but wasn’t planning on staying long.

“It wasn’t even two minutes before someone screamed that they had been stabbed,” Blaylock said, adding that he was interviewed by police about the incident.

The sophomore said he spoke with Wagner during his hospitalization and realized “how crazy this town has gone.”

“We’re in high school. We shouldn’t be walking around with guns in our hands, waiting for something to happen, and then hurting each other,” he said. “There needs to be a change, or it’s going to keep happening over and over again.”

Wagner said he had two surgeries, one on 6 inches of his small intestine and the other on his hand. Medical staff told him he was almost dead. Wagner faces another surgery on his hand next week.

Looking back on the night, the 17-year-old is still trying to understand why Aultman did what he did.

“The fact that he could do this to anybody, I think justice is for him to be away for a long time,” he said. “I don’t want anyone else to go through what I went through.

“I was happy to be me because I know how to deal with difficult things. And it wasn’t that bad because I know I didn’t do anything wrong.”

A preliminary hearing on the aggravated assault and battery charge is scheduled for Aultman on Thursday in Casper Circuit Court. The felony charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at [email protected].