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Jan. 6, 2001 By Aspen C. Emmett Cortez may have been a Thursday morning pit stop for seven potentially dangerous Texas fugitives who escaped from prison more than three weeks ago, said Sgt. Anthony Archuleta of the Durango Police Department. Archuleta said an anonymous call was received by Crime Stoppers in Cañon City Thursday morning, alerting officials that the fugitives were possibly in Cortez at the time of the call, heading to Durango and then on to Montrose. "The call is unconfirmed," Archuleta said Thursday afternoon. "But we wanted to alert the public of the possibility." The gang is made up of two killers, two armed robbers, a child-abuser, a serial rapist and a burglar. Archuleta said the tipster told Crime Stoppers that the fugitives are traveling in a Red Ford panel van with temporary license plate # 48366, state unknown. Police are requesting that if anyone sees the vehicle, they call 911 as soon as possible and not try to make contact with the vehicle or its occupants. The escapees are heavily armed and extremely dangerous, Archuleta said. Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane said his office was alerted as well, but there had been nothing found to support the claim. "It’s like this with any high-profile case," Lane said. "There are a lot of tips. They all have to be checked out and they all have to be taken seriously." Friday afternoon, Archuleta said there had been no new developments in the case. He said the Durango Police Department had received a few calls about possible sightings at a City Market, and another earlier in the week at a gas station. "By the time we got there, no one was around so we couldn’t confirm that," Archuleta said. "There have been so many sightings around the country, its hard to tell where they’re at." Archuleta said the initial Thursday uproar about the possibility of the fugitives being in the area has diffused somewhat. However he still cautioned people to be on the look-out. "I’m not saying that they’re not in our area but we haven’t been able to confirm that they are," he said. "I think people still need to be aware about not picking up people or stopping for cars." Cpl. Tom Boyce with the Durango police said the department had also taken calls about van sightings but none of them had panned out. "I think everybody with a red van is getting called in right now," Boyce said. "We just keep chasing them down and taking the reports and seeing what people have to say, but nothing has jumped out at us as being anything we can substantiate." There were also reports of the fugitives being spotted in San Marcos, Texas, simultaneously with the local report, Boyce said. "Somebody said they thought they had seen them at a bank down there," he said. Texas officials said they have received more than 1,000 leads as to their whereabouts, acknowledging the reports are from around the country and the escapees are "obviously incapable of being everywhere at once." The fugitives escaped from a South Texas prison on Dec. 13, stealing 14 .357-caliber Magnum pistols with 238 rounds of ammunition, a loaded automatic rifle and a loaded shotgun. The seven escapees are also accused of killing a police officer on Dec. 24 during a robbery of a sporting-goods store in Texas. The officer was shot several times from two directions and then run over by a car. She was behind the store, responding to a 911 call. During the robbery the fugitives made off with 25 guns, ammunition, winter gear and $80,000, police said. Two of the escapees are also accused of a Dec. 15 robbery of a Radio Shack, also in Texas, where they are suspected of stealing walkie-talkies, police scanners and a 1997 Dodge Stratus. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the seven fugitives are:
The fugitives will be featured on Fox network’s "America’s Most Wanted" television program Saturday at 8 p.m. |
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez Journal.
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