Angel Peak Bloomfield, NM
Posted on 12/23/2005 6:49:19 PM PST by precedence
Nothing more...just posted on the MSNBC website.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
What happened there? I must have missed hearing about this at the time.
LOL! I can hear Bugs now, speaking in his New Yoik-ease type voice! ;-)
They should have stuck to Grand Theft Auto. Lots less heat. Stealing HE makes all sorts of people extremely itchy and unhappy. What doofuses.
This bumps up "massive stupidity" as the likely explanation for their using a cutting torch on the lock.
I wonder if the NSA helped nab these guys when they called Osama?
It might be safe to say it highly unlikely names like Buckingham, Van Quackenbush, Seinfeld nor Silverman will pop up.
Let's see: Smith, Miller, Jones and Johnson???
I could be wrong, but I doubt it
Not to mention a '50 pickup with bald tires won't go 400 miles.
In the interest of fairness the last time I was on the Big Rez, everyone had a new car.
Hmmm........
Yep and three cases of beer "cans" in the bed........:o)
Here was one crime planned by weenies in that 4 corner region.....they are still looking for the third.......
Manhunt
by Hal Mansfield
Rewards totaling $162,500 are awaiting the person or persons who find Jason Wayne McVean, dead or alive. The FBI wants McVean for the first-degree murder of a peace officer, for first-degree assault, for aggravated motor vehicle theft, for car jacking, and for assault on a federal officer. He has not been seen, according to police records, since May 29, 1998.
Jason McVean’s two "partners in the crime spree," Robert Matthew Mason and Alan "Monte" Pilon are dead. Mason apparently died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on June 4, 1998. Pilon’s skeletal remains were discovered October 31, 1999. Authorities believe either that he shot himself or that Mason or McVean shot him. The deer hunters who found Pilon’s remains divided rewards totaling $162,500.
The three, McVean, Pilon and Mason, allegedly stole a water truck about 11:30 in the morning of May 28, 1998, from an oil field service parking lot near Ignacio, Colo. The next morning at 9:24, Cortez (Colo.) police officer Dale Claxton spotted the truck and began following it. The truck, with three men in it, was about 80 miles from where it was stolen. The truck pulled over and stopped, just beyond the Cortez city limits in Montezuma County.
Before Claxton could get out of his police cruiser, one of the three men got out of the truck, walked toward the police car and fired numerous rounds from an automatic weapon into the cruiser. Claxton died instantly from the hail of 7.62 x 39 bullets. (Authorities do not know which of the men did what throughout this escapade.)
After killing Claxton, the three men drove several miles before they abandoned the water truck and commandeered at gunpoint a flatbed truck from Paul Ibarra, an employee of Cortez building contractor Bob Williams. Two of the men got into the truck’s cab. The third man got on the truck’s bed, brandishing an automatic weapon.
Just before the flatbed truck pulled out of Williams’ driveway onto Montezuma County Road F, a Montezuma County sheriff’s deputy, Jason Bishop, drove by in his cruiser, heading west on Road F. He was looking for the water truck. The flatbed truck pulled out and followed the deputy for a short distance. Then, the man on the back of the truck opened fire.
Bishop was wounded in the back of his head. He lost consciousness and his cruiser crashed. The stolen truck sped toward a bend where Road F meets Montezuma County Road 25. Almost immediately, the men in the truck saw a Colorado State Patrol vehicle coming toward them. The man on the flatbed opened fire. The man on the passenger side may have fired also. Patrolman Steve Keller was not hit by the hail of bullets from the automatic weapon, but his vehicle was put out of action by a flat tire and one or more shattered windows. Seconds later, Cortez Police Sergeant Sue Betts came into view around the corner. Shots fired from the truck hit her cruiser, but she was not injured.
Up ahead, on Road 25, Deputy Todd Martin pulled off the road onto a church parking lot. He got out of his cruiser, shotgun in hand. Before Martin could take aim with the shotgun, the man on the flatbed and the man on the passenger side opened fire. Martin received serious wounds to his elbow and knee. Shots were directed at, but missed, Cortez officer Jim Bob Wynes and his cruiser. As officer Wynes applied emergency first aid to Martin, State Trooper Keller ran up, got in Wynes’ cruiser and pursued the fugitives.
Farther along, where Road 25 and Road G intersect, the truck encountered cruisers driven by Montezuma County sheriff’s officers Lendol Lawrence and Terry Steele and Sheriff’s Capt. Joey Chavez. Again, a volley of automatic bullets sprayed the vehicles. Miraculously, none of the lawmen was injured. All of the cruisers were hit, but all were able to continue in the chase. Four cruisers were now in pursuit.
In just a few action-packed seconds, two deputies lay wounded and seven vehicles were hit with gunfire or otherwise damaged by the heavily armed desperados. (Some idea of the level of violence can be seen in the dramatic reenactment of the events that has been shown on both "Unsolved Mysteries" and on "America’s Most Wanted" on cable TV. Though not accurate in minor ways, the reenactments provide a realistic overview of the events. As many as 500 rounds of automatic ammunition were fired, all in the space of a few minutes. That is a level of firepower normally found in only the most intense actions.)
As the truck sped across the U. S. Highway 160 intersection with Road G, more shots came from the truck. At the intersection, one civilian car and a trash dumpster were hit with shots. No one was struck. In the traffic tie-up and the confusion at the intersection, the fugitives got away. The four pursuing officers were not sure which direction the fugitives took or whether they were still in the flatbed truck. The truck disappeared up McElmo Canyon on Montezuma County Road G.
Far up McElmo Canyon, the fugitives doubled back on Pleasant View Road and headed east toward Hovenweep National Monument. They were now in Utah. About one mile from the monument entrance, they encountered Art Hutchinson, the superintendent of the monument. Hutchinson – who had heard on his police scanner that the fugitives might be heading his way – drove out to close the entrance gate and out onto Pleasant View Road to warn others about the danger. As he drove west on Pleasant View Road a hail of automatic gunfire came his way, causing the ranger to swerve his vehicle off the road. Only two of the bullets hit the car; none hit Hutchinson. The truck sped away from Pleasant View Road into a remote, nearby area known as Cross Canyon, in San Juan County, Utah.
Before abandoning the truck in Cross Canyon, the fugitives tried to hide it by cutting brush and putting it on the truck. The truck’s bright yellow paint made it still visible. The truck was discovered around 1 p.m. by San Juan County sheriff’s officers.
San Juan County Sheriff Mike Lacy called in search teams from a number of law enforcement agencies and a massive manhunt ensued. Mysteriously, only two sets of human tracks led away from the truck before the tracks soon disappeared in the brushy tangle of the creek bottom. It is some of the Southwest’s most rugged country.
Over the next few days, the manhunt involved over 500 searchers from more than 50 law enforcement agencies. Up to 18 helicopters, some equipped with sophisticated sensors, were used. Teams of trackers from the Navajo Nation police participated. Search dogs were brought in to help the teams scour the vast area.
Colorado’s governor at the time, Roy Romer, declared a state of emergency so units of the Colorado National Guard could be mobilized to join in the manhunt. FBI agents and resources also were involved.
The vegetation surrounding Cross Creek is often so thick that vision is limited to a few feet. Adding to the physical difficulties of mounting an effective search was the certain knowledge that the fugitives were armed and ready to direct heavy firepower at any pursuers. All the members of the many search teams knew they could be walking into fatal traps.
The fugitives were not found.
By June 2, the three fugitives were identified as Robert Matthew Mason and Jason Wayne McVean, both from Durango, Colo., and Alan "Monte" Pilon, of Dove Creek, Colo. Mason and McVean had minor police records. All were known to hold radical, anti-government political views. Pilon held extreme racist and religious views and owed money to the IRS. Records indicate that the three had once been members of a "patriot group" but were asked to leave the group because of their violent views and tendencies.
Many of the searchers and people from all over the Southwest took time out to bury officer Claxton.
The motive for the theft of the oil field water truck was not discovered among the fugitives’ personal effects. These effects included notebooks, detailed maps, lists of huge stores of food, tactical plans on how and when to implement chemical warfare, and references to pipe bombs, guns, grenades and ammunition. One theory is that the three intended to fill the truck with explosives to pull off an Oklahoma City-type bombing. Almost certainly, they were thinking about surviving in the backcountry for many months.
On June 4, about 42 miles from where the flatbed truck was abandoned, one of the three men was spotted on the banks of the San Juan River, near Bluff, Utah. The fugitive shot at – but missed – Steve Wilcox, a social worker who intended to eat his lunch at a small picnic area just east of Bluff, near the Swinging Bridge that spans the San Juan River. Wilcox sped from the area and called 911. A San Juan County deputy sheriff, Kelly Bradford, was nearby and responded to the call.
As Bradford got out of his cruiser and stood on a low bluff looking down toward the picnic area and the Swinging Bridge, he was shot twice by a gunman in hiding on the opposite side of the river. His wounds were serious. A bulletproof vest may have saved his life. Another officer arrived and pulled him to safety.
Then, several search teams arrived and began a series of careful sweeps of the area. The gunman’s location was soon pinpointed. He apparently took his own life as the search teams surrounded him and moved in for the capture. The dead man was later identified as Robert Matthew Mason. A number of pipe bombs were seen near his body. A winch finally moved the body the next morning because it appeared that it might be booby-trapped with the bombs. It wasn’t.
A massive search for the other two fugitives was launched in the Bluff area. Roadblocks were set up in the area and hundreds of cars were stopped and searched at gunpoint. All of Bluff’s 300 residents were evacuated. An intense search of the San Juan River Valley was conducted. Some areas of heavy brush in the river bottom were burned in an effort to spot the fugitives or to burn them out into the open. No verifiable trace of the fugitives was found, though a number of sightings were called in. It is possible the two were never in the area.
The search for Monte Pilon and Jason McVean continued for several weeks. It gradually slowed because of a lack of clues and due to depleted law enforcement agency budgets. It has been estimated that the manhunt cost over one million dollars in the first few weeks. At one time, rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Pilon and McVean totaled more than $300,000. The two were put on the FBI’s "wanted list."
Seventeen months later, on Oct. 31, 1999, a group of 11 Navajo deer hunters found Monte Pilon’s skeleton on Tin Cup Mesa. The remains were 1.42 miles, "as the crow flies," from the spot in Cross Canyon where the yellow flatbed truck was abandoned on May 29, 1998. The remains rested under a tree not far from where search teams passed countless times during the early phases of the manhunt. The spot where the camouflage-clad body was found commanded views over several nearby roads. The juniper tree his skeleton rested under provided cover. The skeleton was so far back under the tree branches that investigators had to cut the tree down in order to examine the remains.
Lab tests did not pin down the exact cause of Pilon’s death. It is most probable that he died from a gunshot to the head. The angle of the bullet’s entry into the skull suggested to some investigators that someone else shot him (perhaps McVean or Mason). Pilon had a fractured ankle. He would have been able to walk, but only with considerable pain. The ankle injury might explain why his body was there and why only two sets of human tracks were found going away from the truck the fugitives abandoned. The time of death could not be established, but it was clear the body had been under the tree for many months, perhaps since early in the manhunt.
Theories on McVean’s whereabouts abound. One theory is that he fled the area almost at once. A second is that he stayed in the area for some time and avoided capture by receiving outside help during the intense phases of the manhunt and afterwards. A third theory, which many connected with the case believe, is that McVean died—much like Pilon—early in the manhunt. McVean’s fate may never be known.
Mason’s parents and McVean’s father and stepmother recently contacted a Denver Post reporter. The Post reopened media attention to the case with a front-page story in its Saturday, May 20, 2000, issue. In that story, the parents expressed their deep sorrow over the murder of Claxton, the wounding of the deputies and the terrible harm their sons caused. They also voiced frustrations about the lack of cooperation from various law enforcement agencies. They said that they wish nothing more than to have the matter fully resolved, but feel that many questions have not been satisfactorily answered. They told how they recently sent letters of apology to Claxton’s family and to the officers who were wounded.
Officer Bishop, who was shot in the back of the head, was released from the Cortez hospital on the day he was wounded. He left police work for reasons other than his injury. Officer Martin, after recuperating from life-threatening injuries, joined the Colorado State Patrol and now serves in the Silverton, Colo., area. He has chronic pain from his wounds. San Juan Country sheriff’s deputy Kelly Bradford recovered from his wounds, was promoted to sergeant and still serves in that department.
With one of its officer’s dead, the Cortez Police Department is dedicated to closing the case. The Cortez police, the Montezuma County and the San Juan County sheriffs’ departments and the FBI still actively follow legitimate leads and hope for the final break that will lead them to McVean, or to his body. The ‘hotline’ number is (970) 565-8441, in Cortez, Colorado.
Many residents of the Four Corners area will not rest easy until McVean is behind bars, or his skeleton is found. Meanwhile, the $162,500 in reward money is waiting to be claimed.
That was interesting.
Let me guess: white guys with the last names Smith and Jones, with a little old lady and Medal of Honor winner as accomplices.
It will be O&G related. area with lots of frac work
They were just stocking up for the 4th of July, no problem!
Funny how these people never have a connection to terrorism unless they're high-up buddies to bin Laden or Zarqawi, or they're card-carrying al-Qaeda. Otherwise, they're just guys on a Sunday drive with no connection to anybody. Driving around with 400 lbs. of high explosives is something a petty thug does every day.
Thank you for posting that Squantos...you just reminded me to call Mrs. Claxton and wish her and her children a Merry Christmas.
I wonder what mosque they attended?
Baptist?
One time, we were out near Ramah about sundown, shredded a drive belt-no tools, no phone, etc.
While I was assessing the damage, he went to rooting around and turned up a screwdriver and a discarded pair of pantyhose somewhere out in the brush.
Made a makeshift belt, put it on the pulleys, drove 40 miles.
The Navajo have a way of thinking where things just turn up if you need them. It is a wonderful thing to behold and experience.
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