FBI ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT in charge James Jarboe presents Frankie Topaha, Jr., with a check for $13,636.36 on Friday in Monticello. The check was Topaha’s share of the $150,000 reward the FBI paid for the Oct. 31 discovery of the remains of Alan Pilon, one of three men charged with the May 29, 1998, slaying of Cortez Patrol Officer Dale Claxton. The reward was split equally among the 11 deer hunters who found Pilon’s body. Seated behind Topaha are (front row, left to right) Valdis Joe, Willie Tortalita, Kenneth Joe, Sheldon Wilfred Jones, and (back row) Matthew Tortalita and Arnold Hatathle. Those not attending Friday’s presentation were Virgil Holly, Earl Ahtsosie, Parnell Thomas and Freeman Sam.

BY GAIL BINKLY

They went out looking for deer and found a piece of one of the biggest puzzles ever to stymie the Four Corners.

On Friday at a ceremony in Monticello, a group of Navajo hunters who stumbled across the bones of fugitive Alan "Monte" Pilon last Oct. 31 were presented with checks for their share of a $150,000 FBI reward.

Each of the 11 hunters received $13,636.36 for finding the remains of Pilon, who along with fellow survivalists Robert Mason and Jason McVean was accused of the murder of Cortez Patrol Officer Dale Claxton on May 29, 1998.

The three were reportedly in a stolen water truck that Claxton was tailing as it headed south of Cortez. The truck stopped, a gunman got out, and Claxton was slain in a hail of automatic-weapon fire before he could even step out of his patrol car.

What use the terrorists intended for the water truck remains a mystery — and now, with two of the three fugitives known to be dead, the chances of solving that mystery seem slender.

Only McVean remains at large.

Mason was found dead near Bluff on June 4, 1998, of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. But the other two accused killers had not been heard from for more than a year when the 11 hunters discovered Pilon’s camouflage-clad body on Tin Cup Mesa on the Utah-Colorado border — just 3 miles, it turned out, from where the fugitives had abandoned their stolen getaway vehicle and fled into the wilderness.

Near Pilon were an assault rifle and handgun as well as numerous pipe bombs.

Valdis Joe, one of the hunters, said Friday they had not originally planned to go to Tin Cup Mesa but had been told by others that there were some big deer up there.

And they did bag a couple, he said, during their day-long outing. But near dusk the group made their much-more-significant discovery.

The hunters, while not certain whom they’d found, did suspect it was Pilon, Joe said.

"You kind of have an idea," he said. "When there’s an assault rifle with pipe bombs, it narrows it down. And once we found the glasses, we kind of knew it was him." Pilon wore glasses, while McVean did not.

At Friday’s presentation, law-enforcement officers from different agencies called for citizens to be on the lookout for McVean.

"May 29, 1998, at 9:25 a.m. is a day and time I don’t think I’ll ever forget," said Cortez Assistant Police Chief Russ Johnson, recounting how Claxton was "brutally shot and killed by three armed men before he had a chance to exit his vehicle."

An estimated 250 to 300 rounds from automatic weapons were fired at the Cortez police, Montezuma County sheriff’s officers, and Colorado State Patrol troopers who pursued the trio. Two sheriff’s officers were shot and seriously wounded in the chase, and nine law-enforcement vehicles were damaged, Johnson recounted.

"The members of the Cortez Police Department would like to thank each and every one of you for helping to put a closure to this case," Johnson told the seven hunters who showed up for the presentation.

"The Cortez Police Department remains committed to either finding or arresting that person, Jason McVean," he added.

James Jarboe, FBI assistant special agent in charge, noted in presenting the reward checks that President Lyndon Johnson once said "law enforcement cannot succeed without the sustained and informed participation of all citizens."

He urged anyone with information about McVean’s whereabouts to contact the FBI or their local law-enforcement agency. The FBI is still offering a reward of up to $150,000 for information leading directly to McVean’s apprehension, he said.