After her name surfaced in a Platte County criminal case, April Marie Morganroth, using the name Marie Hamilton, took to Facebook and accused others of spreading rumors or relying on incomplete information.This is a follow-up to The Open Range Record’s earlier story. It does not rely on rumor. It goes back to the documents Morganroth or others published about her. It lays out those claims side by side and compares them to what can actually be traced in the public record. What follows is what April Marie Morganroth (Marie Hamilton) wrote about herself.
What emerges is not one stable résumé, but a series of changing public credentials. The issue is not whether a person can have a complicated life history or use more than one surname. The issue is whether the education, legalstudy, and work-history claims presented to readers, employers, and the public can be substantiated. Many of them can not.
What she said about herself, source by source:
Sidney Sun-Telegraph, April 20, 2023
• Award-winning investigative journalist
• Former USA Today reporter
• Seventeen years with Gannett, part of the USA Today network
• A 22-year journalism career
• Bachelor of Arts in Print Journalism from Arizona State University
• Master of Arts in Print Journalism from Arizona State University
• Career included watchdog, human-interest and investigative work
Platte County Record-Times / Guernsey Gazette welcome article
• Award-winning journalist
• Known among Wyoming Press Association peers as “Little Miss Fact Checker”
• More than 25 years of experience in journalism
• Bachelor’s and Master’s in Journalism from Arizona State University
• Currently seeking to complete a Juris Doctorate at the University of Wyoming
• Worked for USA Today, NPR, iHeartRadio and other local Wyoming news organizations
• Previously worked for Wyoming Newspapers, Inc. at the Torrington Telegram
• Specialized in investigative, data and historical reporting
• Moved back to Wyoming in 2021 with her husband of 25 years and their three sons.
Wyoming Sentinel biography
• Owner, publisher and managing editor of the Wyoming Sentinel
• Twenty-six years of experience in journalism
• Began her career at USA Today
• Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD in Journalism from Arizona State University
• Currently pursuing a Juris Doctorate in Media Law at the University of Wyoming
City of Cheyenne board application, April 15, 2025
Mayor’s Council for People with Disabilities
• Applied under the name A. Marie Hamilton-Morganroth, with Marie listed as preferred name
• “BA/MA Journalism & Media/Constitutional Law @ ASU”
• “Currently finishing JD in SpEd Law/Disability with UW”
• More than 15 special education/disabilities certifications as a special education advocate with UpLiftWyo
• Said she was working with legislators, elected officials, law enforcement and the school district on disability-related policies and procedures
• Said she was interviewing to become the new special education specialist for WDE
• Described herself as an award-winning and credentialed member of the Wyoming Press Association
• Said she had worked at a couple of newspapers in Wyoming and still did
What the record supports
An archived biography under the name April Morganroth said she earned an Associate of Applied Science in Digital Photography from Phoenix College in December 2013 and was a Walter Cronkite journalism junior at Arizona State University in 2014.
An official spring 2014 dean’s list from Arizona State University’s Cronkite School includes April Morganroth, which strongly supports that she was enrolled there in 2014.
The Open Range Record has not independently verified the later stack of claims that she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Arizona State, that she later held a PhD from Arizona State, or that she was finishing or pursuing the various University of Wyoming law programs described in those public biographies and applications.
In The Open Range Record’s earlier story, citing Cowboy State Daily’s reporting on the investigation, an investigator said the University of Wyoming had been checked, and officials could not corroborate Hamilton’s claim that she was enrolled there.
Why the inconsistencies are important
Put next to each other, the claims do not add up. The career length moves from 22 years to more than 25 years to 26 years. The Arizona State claim grows from a bachelor’s and master’s to a bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD. The University of Wyoming claim shifts from seeking a JD to pursuing a JD in Media Law to finishing a JD in special education law and disability.
That does not, by itself, prove every claim was false. But it does establish a pattern of changing public representations about education, legal studies and work history.
Hamilton has argued on Facebook that people should focus on verified facts. That is exactly the point. Many of the questions now being asked do not come from rumor. They come from her own public biographies, a city board application, archived newspaper articles, and earlier reporting tied to the investigation.
The City of Cheyenne approved Hamilton’s appointment to the Mayor’s Council for People with Disabilities in May 2025.The materials provided to The Open Range Record show she attended her first board meeting in June 2025, was marked absent in July, August and September, and then no longer appeared on the roll in minutes from October through February.
A careful conclusion
This story is not about piling on or feeding a social media mob. It is about whether the public qualifications repeatedly presented by a reporter, editor, publisher, and board applicant can be squared with the paper trail now available.At this point, some parts of Hamilton’s background can be traced. Other parts remain unverified. That is not rumor. That is the record as it stands.
The Open Range Record will update this story as more information becomes available.