Deputies said they found Diane Wetherbee asleep upstairs after a man was shot in the leg at a Challis home.
CHALLIS, Idaho — The first public picture of a shooting case in Challis has been built from what deputies said they found inside a house: a wounded man on the porch, a pistol on a bedroom floor, blood in several spots and the accused woman asleep upstairs.
Those details now sit at the center of the felony prosecution of Diane Wetherbee, 65, who is charged with aggravated battery with the use of a deadly weapon. Authorities said the shooting followed an argument involving alcohol, but the case has drawn unusual interest because the injured man told police he had handed Wetherbee the .380 pistol and dared her to fire it. The publicly available reporting reviewed Tuesday did not show whether a preliminary hearing set for March 30 produced any later ruling.
Deputies with the Custer County Sheriff’s Office were sent to the 500 block of Westergard Road at 11:23 p.m. March 14 on a report that a man had been shot in the right leg. By the time law enforcement got there, the man was outside on the back porch. He was taken to an ambulance and spoke there with Sheriff Levi Maydole, according to court documents cited by local media. The man said he and Wetherbee had been drinking in the house and arguing when he gave her a .380 pistol and said words to the effect of, “shoot me.” Investigators said Wetherbee then fired the weapon and the man was struck in the leg. He also told deputies that after the shot, Wetherbee went to a bedroom and fell asleep.
The evidence described by deputies gave prosecutors more than a verbal account. Officers said they found Wetherbee sleeping in an upstairs bedroom. The pistol believed to have been used in the shooting was on the bedroom floor near multiple puddles of blood, according to the reports. Deputies also said they found more blood on carpet outside the room and located a pair of bloody boots near the back door. Another man at the home reportedly told investigators he did not witness the shooting itself but heard a single gunshot. That witness statement may support the rough timeline, but it also leaves important gaps. Public reports do not say who owned the gun, how long the argument lasted, whether anyone tried to call for help before deputies were dispatched, or whether forensic testing later connected the blood patterns and firearm to one account over another.
Wetherbee’s own alleged statements are another major piece of the case. Deputies said she confessed while being transported to the Custer County Jail and again during an interview there. One report said she admitted shooting the man multiple times. That wording stands out because the known injury in public coverage is a gunshot wound to the leg and another witness reported hearing one shot. It is not clear from the available reports whether “multiple times” referred to repeated admissions, more than one trigger pull, or a phrasing issue in the documents. That ambiguity is likely to matter if the case proceeds, because the difference between one shot and several shots can change how a prosecutor frames intent, danger and credibility.
Outside the evidence, the legal framework is straightforward. Wetherbee was booked on a $25,000 bond. She also became subject to a no-contact order directing her to stay away from the alleged victim as the case moves through court. The aggravated battery charge with a deadly weapon is a felony, and public reports said a conviction could carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for March 30. In Idaho felony cases, that hearing is often where a judge decides whether prosecutors have shown probable cause for the case to advance. The public reports available Tuesday did not describe whether the hearing happened as scheduled, whether it was waived or delayed, or whether any plea had been entered.
The setting adds another layer to the case. Challis is a small central Idaho town where police calls can quickly become community news, especially when a firearm, alcohol and a domestic violence dispatch are all part of the same account. Yet the public record remains narrow. The victim’s condition after the ambulance response has not been described in detail. Authorities have not publicly laid out whether the argument involved prior threats, whether the people in the home were relatives or partners, or whether prosecutors are considering any additional charge tied to domestic violence. For now, the case is defined less by sweeping claims than by a tightly limited set of physical details: one house, one late-night call, one injured man, one weapon and one suspect found asleep nearby.
Where the case goes next will depend on whether later court records answer the questions the scene itself could not. As of Tuesday, the public reporting still pointed back to the same disputed night in March and the evidence deputies said they found inside the home.
Author note: Last updated April 14, 2026.