The mystery continues

The mystery continues
Bones on Tin Cup Mesa not McVean's, experts say

Oct. 28, 2000

BY MATT GLECKMAN
Journal Staff Writer

Expert medical examiners have ruled out the possibility that two bones found in southeastern Utah on Thursday belonged to fugitive Jason Wayne McVean, who allegedly gunned down Cortez Patrol Officer Dale Claxton more than two years ago.

"The medical examiner for the state of Utah told us that the bones were non-human," said San Juan County, Utah, Sheriff Mike Lacy on Friday.

Upon first hearing about the discovery, local police were hopeful that the final suspect involved in the Claxton shooting had been found.

However, others remained skeptical. "I was certain I had located McVean alive, and so I was surprised when they said they had found him dead," said Cañon City tracker Don Bendell, who has been seeking the fugitive since the shooting.

Bendell declined to say where he believes he might have seen McVean.

The bones, which apparently resembled a human arm, were discovered by a Colorado couple who were eating lunch on Tin Cup Mesa overlooking Cross Canyon Thursday.

Examiners were not sure what kind of animal the bones might have belonged to, Lacy said.

Lacy said he asked John Foster, their chief investigator, what kind of bones they might be and he told him, "I don’t have any idea — we’re not experts on animal bones, so we couldn’t tell."

The examiners ruled out the possibility that the bones were human by looking at them, the sheriff said.

"I looked at the bones and I was skeptical to start out with, but other people looked at them... who are supposed to be in the know, and they thought that it was (human)," Lacy said.

Lacy said that the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office attempted to fly the bones up to the examiner’s office in Salt Lake City on Thursday but the plane was forced to turn back because of bad weather. Early Friday morning a deputy drove the bones to Salt Lake City.

The bones were approximately 35-40 feet away from where the skeletal remains of Alan "Monte" Pilon were found by a group of Navajo deer-hunters on Nov. 1, 1999, according to reports.

Pilon was another of the three fugitives who had been linked to the Claxton shooting.

Both Pilon, of Dove Creek, and McVean, of Durango, disappeared into the Cross Canyon area on May 29, 1998, after they allegedly killed Claxton after he was tailing them as they drove a stolen water truck.

Police believe that Robert Mason, the third fugitive tied to the shooting, killed himself on June 4, 1998, with a 9mm handgun outside of Bluff, Utah, after he wounded a Utah sheriff’s deputy.

On Friday, sheriff’s officers were out searching the area around Tin Cup Mesa for more evidence, Lacy said. "We did find about 15 more bones and fragments, but I don’t think that they were related. We sent them up (to Salt Lake City) anyway for testing," he said.

Lacy said that if the experts had determined the bones were human, DNA testing would have followed. "But now I know that they’re not human so I’m not worrying about it," he said.