With two suspected cop-killers dead, police are hoping media publicity will turn up the heat on the remaining fugitive and whoever is helping to hide him – if he has not met the same fate as his two cohorts.

"America’s Most Wanted" will be airing an update Saturday night on the continuing search for Jason Wayne McVean, 28, of Durango, featuring new interviews with investigators and footage of the site on Tin Cup Mesa where Alan "Monte" Pilon, 30, of Dove Creek, was found dead Oct. 31.

One of those interviewed for the segment was Dot Graham, the FBI agent based in Durango who has headed the search for McVean, Pilon, and Robert Mason, 26, of Durango, since the three allegedly gunned down Cortez police officer Dale Claxton when he spotted them in a stolen water truck in Cortez on May 29, 1998. Mason was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on June 4, 1998, east of Bluff, Utah.

The program has broadcast five other segments on the manhunt, updating the footage as Mason’s body was found and as the search began focusing on Montezuma Creek, Utah, in late June 1998, according to Stacy Fusaro, a spokeswoman for "America’s Most Wanted."

Fusaro said the segment airing Saturday night will be about 6½ minutes long and will run after the second commercial intermission. The program will air locally beginning at 8 p.m. on KASA-TV (channel 39 over the air and channel 8 on Durango cable).

An FBI agent from Denver will be at the "America’s Most Wanted" studio in Washington, D.C., to handle calls and to help coordinate any follow-up investigations, Graham said.

Graham said Thursday that while it is possible that McVean is dead, FBI crime analysis experts believe that there is a good chance he is still alive somewhere in the Four Corners. And if he’s alive, he’s getting help, Graham said.

"It’s not likely you would survive out there without some kind of human interaction," Graham said.

Graham said investigators have identified individuals or groups who may be helping McVean, but declined to discuss the details of that aspect of the investigation into the fugitive’s whereabouts.

The possibility that someone is helping McVean also introduces the chances that new charges will arise from the manhunt, Graham said.

"Anyone who does knowingly provide assistance to a wanted felon is committing a serious felony themselves," Graham said. "But there have been instances where that assistance was provided either unwittingly or under duress, and in those cases the individuals are not always charged, if they cooperate with authorities."

While many have theorized that McVean’s body is drying somewhere out in the desert west of Cortez, Graham is not so sure he would consider committing suicide.