Sole surviving daughter of Wyoming murder-suicide dies in hospital

By East Idaho News
February 16, 2025

Brailey and Olivia Blackmer | GoFundMe

BYRON, Wyoming – A 7-year-old girl who has been hospitalized since being shot in the head nearly a week ago has died.

Olivia Blackmer and her three sisters were shot by their mother, Tranyelle Harshman, in their Byron, Wyoming home Monday before Harshman turned the gun on herself, according to the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office. Brailey, 9, Brooke, who was almost 3, and Jordan, 2, all died at the scene.

Olivia survived and was flown to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, where she passed away Saturday afternoon.

Harshman family
A Wyoming mother shot her four daughters and then shot herself, according to the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office. | Tranyelle Harshman Facebook page

“Olivia is with her sisters now. She gained her angel wings yesterday at 3:44 p.m.,” Olivia’s stepmother, Katelynn Blackmer, wrote on a GoFundMe page Sunday. “She fought so, so hard up til the last minute! Her body and her brain had been through too much. Medication helped but we reached a point where medical options were exhausted and her body only continued to get worse.”

Blackmer said Olivia “kept fighting through until her heart stopped” and the family is grateful she hung on for five days so they could spend valuable time with her.

“We want to thank each and every one of you for your prayers and support for our family,” Blackmer wrote. “This is going to be extremely hard, please keep our family in your prayers as we figure out how to grieve this horrific tragedy day to day.”

Dispatchers received a call around 1:30 p.m. Monday from a woman who “reported her daughters had been shot,” and she believed them to be dead, according to a news release from the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office.

Harshman, 32, told dispatchers that two of her children would be found upstairs in their cribs, and the other two could be found downstairs in their shared bedroom.

She reportedly told police she would be found in her upstairs bedroom, and she was going to shoot herself, according to the release.

“The dispatcher pleaded with the female caller over the phone for the female caller to remain on the line until responding units arrive,” the release says. “The female caller stated multiple times that she could not do that and that it was too late.”

Funeral details are pending, according to the GoFundMe page. The biological father and stepmother of the two older children live in Utah. Two fundraising campaigns have been created for the Utah and Wyoming families of the girls.

SVIalpine.com is made possible thanks to a partnership between SVI Media, the Alpine Travel & Tourism Board and the Town of Alpine.

© 2024 SVI Media

Proudly built by Wyomingites in Wyoming