Former Brother-In-Law Sought In Double-Murder

A gunman shot a mother and son to death in their farm home near here Saturday night, critically wounded the husband and another son, then set the house afire.

Custer County Undersheriff Don Neese said he issued a pickup order Sunday for Carl Sidney Race, 49, former husband of the dead woman’s sister. Race was believed to be from Washington state, he said.

“It looks like he was blaming the (Wyman) family for his failed marriage,” the undersheriff said.

Race was believed to be driving a gold-colored 1978 Buick Skylark with Washington license plates 180 GKZ. Neese said he is 5 feet, 5 inches tall, weighs 260 pounds and has thinning gray hair.

Neese did not identify Race’s former wife, but said she lives in another state and “is being taken care of.”

Neese said he did not know why the gunman set fire to the house.

“Our only speculation is that it was going to be a homicide that was going to be covered up by an arson,” he said.

He identified the dead as Rita Wyman, 55, and her son Paul Wyman, 28.

Claude Wyman, age unknown, and the other son, Jeff Wyman, 32, were in critical condition at Holy Rosary Hospital in Miles City.

“It appears to be a single gunshot to each,” Neese said, adding that Jeff Wyman was burned over about 75 percent of his body.

The victims were not tied, and there were no other indications of execution-style shootings, Neese said.

“It looks to me like it was a total surprise,” he said.

Neese was handling the case alone because Sheriff Tony Harbaugh was on a hunting trip, but Neese said he had not requested help from the state attorney general’s office.

The Wyman home is 28 to 30 miles northeast of this eastern Montana plains town, in the Kinsey Project, a rural community that began as an irrigation district in the 1930s.

Volunteer firefighters were called to the house Saturday night, but were held back for some time because officers feared the gunman was still present.

“We saved the house,” Neese said. “We were able to save the structure.”

Someone reported the shootings and fire to the county 911 center about 8 p.m. Saturday, Neese said.