1 – MAY 28

IGNACIO – A water truck is stolen from Richmond Foxy Disposal on County Road 318.

2a – MAY 29

CORTEZ – Cortez police officer Dale Claxton stops the stolen water truck on County Road 27. A witness said a passenger dressed in camouflage clothing fires more than 18 rounds from an automatic weapon into Claxton’s car, killing him.

2b

3 – JUNE 2

DURANGO – Arrest warrants are issued for Alan "Monte" Pilon, who is now 31, of Dove Creek, Jason Wayne McVean, now 27, of Durango, and Robert Mason, 26, of Durango. SWAT teams from the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, FBI, Cortez Police Department and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation discover pipe bombs and anti-government literature from a storage shed and camper where Pilon had been living at Animas Air Park south of Durango.

4 – JUNE 3

CORTEZ – More than 1,200 people, including Gov. Roy Romer, pay tribute to slain Cortez police officer Dale Claxton at a funeral held on the Cortez High School football field.

5 – JUNE 4

BLUFF, Utah – A Bluff resident is shot at before San Juan County, Utah Sheriff’s Deputy Kelly Bradford – who was protected by a bulletproof vest – is wounded. Mason shoots himself with a pistol in a shallow bunker along the San Juan River east of Bluff as searchers close in.

6 – JUNE 7

7 – JUNE 9

HITE, Utah – Utah state highway workers discover a bag containing a crossbow and corroded ammunition near a highway. Investigators determine the bag had been buried for several years.

8 – JUNE 11

CORTEZ–TheFBI announces it is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Pilon and McVean.

9 – JUNE 28

MONTEZUMA CREEK, UTAH – A 9-year-old girl reports seeing two men dressed in camouflage and carrying rifles examining a water truck.

10 – JULY 2

MONTEZUMA CREEK, UTAH – San Juan County, Utah, Sheriff Mike Lacy organizes a controlled burn of about one square mile of brush along the banks of the San Juan River near where a Navajo SWAT team got within 30 yards of men believed to be Pilon and McVean. Equipment and jurisdictional problems prevent the fires from clearing a significant amount of brush.

11 – JULY 6

MONTEZUMA CREEK, UTAH – Residents report seeing two women driving a white four-door sedan and a blue pickup truck several times near the San Juan River.

12 – JULY 7

MONTEZUMA CREEK, UTAH – Navajo SWAT teams observe two men with flashlights walking at night between the San Juan River and a campfire.

13 – JULY 9

MONTEZUMA CREEK, UTAH – Navajo SWAT teams observe two men dressed in camouflage running through a clearing afterhearingcoughingand branches breaking. SWAT teams attempt to establish a perimeter around the two men, but the thick brush prevents them from capturing the two fugitives.

JULY 14

DENVER – The FBI raises its reward from $50,000 to $300,000 for information leading to the arrest of Pilon and McVean.

14 – JULY 27

ANETH,UTAH–Afamily reports seeing a non-Navajo man with a limp walking out of a shallow canyon. Navajo SWAT teams discover tracks in the area of the sighting, but eventually lose the tracks. Butler says a plaster cast indicates that the tracks are identical to those found near the abandoned truck in Cross Canyon.

AUG. 1

GRAND JUNCTION – Mesa County authorities conduct a brief search after a man reported seeing two men matching Pilon and McVean’sdescriptionsitting beside pickup trucks near the
Colorado/Utah border.

15 – SEPT. 1

MEXICANHAT,UTAH– Rafters on the San Juan River report seeing two men dressed in dark clothing with long objects wrapped in rain jackets strapped to their backs.

Navajo SWAT teams discover faint marks in the area, but no definite tracks.