CORTEZ – Authorities issued arrest warrants Tuesday for two Durango men and a third from Dove Creek who allegedly killed a Cortez police officer and wounded two deputies in a hail of bullets Friday.

But for the fifth day, the trio eluded a massive manhunt in the rugged canyons west of Cahone, about 25 miles north of Cortez. Montezuma County Sheriff Sherman Kennell said searchers found a "cache of supplies," including food and water, hidden in Bug Canyon near Dove Creek.

Police released poor-quality pictures of the three suspects and identified them as Robert Matthew Mason and Jason Wayne McVean, both 26 years old and from Durango, and Alan "Monte" Pilon, 30, of Dove Creek.

At a news conference, Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane described all three as having "survivalist" training and anti-government views, but said they are not known to be associated with any militia or extremist groups. Pilon owed the Internal Revenue Service $1,500 in back taxes, Lane said.

Lane said each of the three have spent much of their lives in the outdoors.

"They hunted and camped for years and years and years," Lane said. "Mason goes home only about every three months. The rest of the time he is out in the woods."

He said Mason and McVean have been friends since childhood and met Pilon a few years ago.

Mason had a drunken-driving conviction in Durango in 1992, while McVean pleaded guilty to criminal trespass for breaking into cars in Durango in 1990. Pilon had no criminal record.

The men are accused of first-degree murder, assault and aggravated motor vehicle theft.

La Plata County sheriff’s deputies assisted the FBI, Colorado Bureau of Investigations and Cortez police Tuesday afternoon in executing a search warrant of several large storage sheds and a camper McVean lived in at Animas Air Park south of Durango.

Herald/Jerry McBride CHIEF INVESTIGATOR Sgt. Jim Ezzell, left, and Undersheriff Robin Harrington, both of the La Plata County Sheriff’s Department, conduct a search Tuesday at Animas Air Park south of Durango near a camper-trailer believed to be suspect Jason McVean’s home.

La Plata County sheriff’s Lt. Dan Bender said a large amount of evidence was taken from the camper and shed, though he declined to say what the items were. The sheds are shared by four businesses, Bender said. Two of the suspects, including McVean, had "connections" with the property, he said.

"But there are no suspicions of foul play or complicity with any of these businesses," Bender said.

Mason’s 3061 West Third Ave. home was also searched Tuesday, Lane said, as was Pilon’s Dove Creek home.

Herald/Nancy Richmond DURANGO POLICE officer Russell Lammon leaves the residence at 3061 West Third Ave. in Durango Tuesday after talking to the parents of fugitive Robert Mason. Mason is one of three suspects in the fatal shooting of Cortez police officer Dale Claxton.

Lane said a former girlfriend of one of the suspects turned police on to the three men early Monday morning. He did not name the woman or say which man she used to date. A number of tips and leads followed, he said.

McVean’s mother also called police Monday and said her son had gone camping in western Montezuma County Thursday and was worried because he had not returned, Lane said. His gray Nissan flatbed pickup truck, a picture of which was circulated to officers Monday, was found by Cortez police late Tuesday near Dove Creek.

Lane said he did not know if the truck was meant to be used as a getaway vehicle for the three, or if the cache of food and clothing found was planted to aid in an escape.

The three suspects stole an empty water truck Thursday in Ignacio, but Lane repeated Tuesday that he did not know what they wanted it for.

A popular theory among some officials was that the three stole the heavy truck to ram and possibly knock over a Ute Mountain Ute Casino truck carrying money in Towaoc, and then planned on evading police on foot through the canyon, using the planted supplies to aid them before fleeing in the Nissan parked at Dove Creek.

Lane said no evidence existed to support the theory.

The trio allegedly shot and killed Cortez police Officer Dale Claxton after he pulled the stolen water truck over south of Cortez. Lane said the three, wearing camouflage, pumped 40 to 50 rounds of bullets into the patrol car with fully automatic assault rifles while Claxton was still buckled into the front seat. A funeral will be held today in Cortez.

The suspects later ditched the water truck west of Cortez and stole a flatbed pickup truck, Lane said. As two suspects drove, a third on the flatbed fired about 500 rounds of bullets at chasing deputies, he said. Two Montezuma County sheriff’s deputies were wounded amid the hail of bullets.

Deputy Todd Martin, 35, was grazed in the head by a bullet and was released from Southwest Memorial Hospital Saturday. Deputy Jason Bishop, 25, remained in the hospital Tuesday with serious gunshot wounds to the left elbow and right knee.

Lane said the trio eluded officials and ditched the car west of Pleasant View, fleeing into the labyrinth that is Cross Canyon.

Since Friday, the three have eluded a search force that has grown to include six helicopters and more than 250 officers from about 40 state, local, federal and Indian agencies in four states.

Tracks have been found in the steep canyons decorated with sage brush, pinion and juniper trees on slick rock and overhangs. The canyon branches into dozens of sections and is riddled with mine portals.

Searchers have found human waste and two sets of tracks near the tiny hamlet of Cahone on U.S. Highway 666 and footprints farther north at Bug Point near Dove Creek. But officers have started backtracking farther south after losing sign of them. Tempers have grown short as the search has dragged on in sweltering heat, Kennell said.

Tracks belonging to the third suspect have not been found, but Lane said he did not know if the trio had split up. He said investigators believe all three are still heavily armed.

He said the search will continue at its current level until at least Thursday. Cortez City Manager Bill Ray said he contacted U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., Tuesday to ask for federal funds to continue the search, which is straining local treasuries.

Lane credited the trio’s strong survivalist training coupled with knowledge of the area with allowing them to escape capture.