Journal Staff Report

The death of fugitive Alan "Monte" Pilon, the suspected murderer whose skeletal remains were found by hunters in southeast Utah Oct. 31, was caused by a gunshot wound to head, possibly self-inflicted, San Juan County Sheriff Mike Lacy said earlier this week.

Pilon, 32, of Dove Creek, had also suffered a broken ankle shortly before his demise, according to Lacy, who said he would discuss no more details of the Utah medical examiner’s report until he had received a written copy, which he expected to be available within a week.

Along with Robert Mason and Jason McVean of Durango, Pilon was charged with the murder of Cortez Patrol Officer Dale Claxton on May 29, 1998. Claxton was shot repeatedly with an automatic rifle after a man police say was McVean emerged from a stolen water truck south of Cortez and ambushed the officer as he sat in his patrol car. Two Montezuma County sheriff’s officers were also seriously wounded during the pursuit of the three suspects, which ended when they abandoned a second stolen truck in Cross Canyon just inside the Utah state line and disappeared on foot.

Mason was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head several days later along the San Juan River near Bluff, Utah, but the search for the other two suspects continued throughout the summer, at its height involving hundreds of law officers and National Guard troops using helicopters with heat-seeking equipment and other high-tech gear, but to no avail.

Beyond unsubstantiated reports of sightings on Navajo Nation land along the San Juan over the next two months, no concrete evidence of their whereabouts was ever developed until Pilon’s remains, still encased in camouflage and body armor, were discovered by hunters at dusk on the last day of deer season. The mostly intact skeleton was concealed under some bushes at a location on Tin Cup Mesa that overlooked Cross and Squaw canyons, and was discovered after the hunters first noticed a backpack and a .308 caliber rifle on a rocky ledge nearby. The body was less than three miles from where the second truck was found partially hidden beneath some broken tree limbs.

Lacy also said he believes Pilon died shortly after the massive manhunt began, and cited the suspect’s practically unworn boots and an unused water filter found in the backpack as evidence that he hadn’t had a chance to practice the survival skills the fugitives were widely touted to possess.

As reconstructed from skull fragments, Pilon’s fatal wound involved a bullet entering his right temple and coming out above his left ear, according to the medical examiner, which would be consisted with it being self-inflicted. An empty 9mm Glock pistol was found next to the body, and a spent casing was found partially buried in the ground nearby.

McVean, now 28, is still at large, and Lacy said he didn’t believe he was still in the same area, and therefore has no plans for any additional large-scale searches.

Agent Jim Jarboe of the FBI’s Salt Lake City office said Monday that his agency had recommended that the $150,000 reward it had offered for information on locating each of the two remaining fugitives be divided equally among the 11 people in the hunting party. That decision will be made by the Department of Justice, he explained

A reward of more than $20,000 was also offered from funds pledged and collected from local sources, but whether that will actually be paid to the hunters is still undecided.