Authorities on Tuesday focused on western Montana and southwest Canada in the search for an escaped convict from Arizona and his suspected accomplice who fashion themselves a present-day “Bonnie and Clyde.”
US marshals said there have been reports that the accomplice, Casslyn Welch, was spotted on Monday at a restaurant in St Mary, Montana, near Glacier National Park, and in southwestern Canada.
Montana’s acting marshal, Rod Ostermiller, said there were multiple other tips from the Glacier area, but he didn’t say whether any included sightings of escapee John McCluskey. The national park abuts the Canadian border in rugged terrain, but the border to the east, along the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, is fairly flat.
“These guys have the ability to get in the car and move relatively easily,” said Fidencio Rivera, chief deputy US marshal for the Arizona district, explaining the wide search area.
A US Border Patrol helicopter joined the search on Tuesday, but authorities on both sides of the rambling border acknowledged it was impossible to completely secure it.
Glacier County Undersheriff Jeff Fauque said there are several, small roads that cross into Canada.
“If you are really dedicated to getting across without being detected, you can do it,” he said.
Sergeant Patrick Webb, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Calgary, Alberta, said Mounties were checking out reports of sightings, but none has been substantiated.
Rivera said the couple have connections in Montana, and marshals are also pursuing leads in Indiana and Pennsylvania, where the fugitives also have ties. Rivera promised more arrests of people suspected of helping the pair and said details would be announced later in the day.
The Arizona attorney general’s office on Monday charged two women, including McCluskey’s mother, with helping the inmates after they escaped.
Another prisoner who escaped with McCluskey waived his right to fight extradition to Arizona.
Tracy Province, 42, appeared in court in Cody on Tuesday, one day after he was captured in the small town of Meeteetse. He waived the right to fight extradition to Arizona and signed a waiver form in handcuffs.
Given the attention the case has received, Park County Circuit Judge Bruce Waters said he expected Province to be returned to Arizona soon.
Province was caught on Monday as he walked in sleepy Meeteetse, Wyoming, steps from a church where he sat in the pews a day earlier and sang Your Grace Is Enough. A woman he talked to after church recognized him from a photograph shown on television, but he went undetected at one of the town’s two bars the night before, even though his photo was broadcast on The Cowboy Bar’s television during the news.
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