Man starts web site on McVean

Man starts web site on McVean

Jan. 17, 2001

by Aspen C. Emmett
Journal Staff Writer

Neither hide nor hair has been seen of accused cop-killer Jason Wayne McVean since May 29, 1998, the day he and two accomplices allegedly shot up the town of Cortez in a militia-style assault and then disappeared into the hot summer desert.

Jason McVean

Two of the three suspects are known to be dead, but for more than three years the county’s most notorious criminal has eluded law enforcement and left everyone to theorize about where he is.

Whether McVean is even alive is still unknown; however, one University of Wyoming student is keeping McVean’s agenda alive, taking on his identity at times and publishing anarchist propaganda on the web.

Kelly Leon Wright, 35, of Laramie, Wyo., contacted the Journal office Tuesday afternoon via a mysterious e-mail under the assumed Hotmail name Jason McVean. He advised editors that he had "good news" and included a web-site address that prompted an investigation by the Cortez Police Department and extended to the UW police department.

McVean is wanted for the shooting death of Cortez Patrol Officer Dale Claxton and for two attempted-murder charges stemming from the 1998 incident. The search for McVean turned into one of the nation’s largest manhunts and put him on America’s 10 Most Wanted list, yet has so far proven fruitless.

Officials and UW administrators have deemed Wright harmless and just "infatuated" with the case, although they could not explain why Wright was posing as McVean.

"Dear fellow Americans, if you want freedom you need to fight for it," Wright posted on an anarchist web forum under the name Jason McVean. "Few Americans would fight for freedom from the oppressive government as I have. Few would make the sacrifices that I have — then again few Americans are wanted by the FBI as I am. Read about my mission gone bad. God Bless America, Jason McVean."

Capt. Kevin White of the UW police department said the web site was put together as an assignment for a mass-communications class and the professor, Eric Wiltse, was not concerned about Wright’s apparent obsession with McVean.

"The web site was supposedly put together as a parody," White told the Journal. "Professor Wiltse advised me that he had no concerns. He had some concerns at the time so he visited with the student and said after visiting with him he really had no concerns about it."

White said he was contacted by Cortez police to investigate the web site’s origin but is not pursuing the case any further.

"I was asked to check in and see what the situation was involving the web site. They have not asked me to follow up on it any further," White said.

In his web site, Wright, masquerading as McVean, hints at the destruction of the Glen Canyon Dam, of weeks spent in a bunker eating Spam and expands on what "his" mission is. The elaborate and well-researched web site include an archive of news articles about the 1998 manhunt, as well as a narrated story about Wright allegedly encountering McVean at an off-beat festival in the Nevada desert.

"I was basking in the sun near a warm springs pond," Wright wrote of his supposed encounter. "Nearby upwards of 40,000 people were camped during the week-long Burning Man Festival. a curious gathering — it was sort of a cross between Woodstock, Marti Gras and the Miles City Bucking Horse Sale.

"The Black Rock Desert near Reno, Nevada was hot and semi-real as a tall, thin, camouflage-clad participant sat his SKS assault rifle on a nearby rock. ‘Great costume man,’ I stated, ‘you must be a Desert Storm Trooper?’ The man first mumbled, then cleared the dust from his throat and asked for a beer. I tossed him a Guinness that he opened with his strong hand.

"I told him, ‘My name is K.L. and I’m from Wyoming. How about you?’" Wright wrote in his account. "He enjoyed a long sip of black sap and replied, ‘You can call me J.W. I was born in Texas.’"

White also posted "McVean’s" résumé, which listed various survival skills including evading, eluding and identity assumption. Additionally he credits the TV show "Pinky and the Brain," The Anarchist Cookbook, The Unabomber Manifesto and The Monkey Wrench Gang as inspirations.

"I was watching an episode of my favorite animation, ‘Pinky and the Brain,’ during a thunderstorm when lightning struck nearby. Ever since then, for some unknown reason, I have been compelled to ‘Try and take over the world,’" White, posing as McVean, wrote as his objective.

Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane said detectives concluded Wednesday afternoon that Wright was not likely in contact with McVean and the lead was no longer being pursued.

"He just has some infatuation with the thing," Lane said. "I doubt very seriously that it’s anything more than that."