Another discovery of weapons and ammunition near Lake Powell is raising hopes that the trail of two fugitive cop-killers may have been found in Utah.

But officials said Friday that they were not sure if Thursday night’s find, or the Wednesday discovery of ammunition and a crossbow also in the area, belonged to suspects Jason McVean and Alan "Monte" Pilon. For now, they said, the search will remain in the canyons northwest of Cortez.

Montezuma County Sheriff Sherman Kennell said the two finds were discovered near Hite, Utah, along state Highway 95 at the northern tip of Lake Powell. Kennell said he has heard only sketchy reports of the Thursday discovery, and did not know what kind of weapons or ammunition was found.

"It may be Indian ruins and a tomahawk, I just don’t know," Kennell said Friday.

Wednesday, about 600 rounds of ammunition consistent with what the suspects used to kill Cortez police officer Dale Claxton were found buried near Hite. The ammunition appeared to be "corroded" by age, according to investigators.

The bullets and crossbow were sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigations for fingerprint analysis. Kennell said results were not yet ready Friday.

About 1:30 a.m. June 7, a Navajo police officer reported seeing a 15-foot boat, possibly with a person inside, floating down the San Juan River about two miles east of Lake Powell. The officer had no night-vision goggles, though, and could not say for sure whether the boat was occupied.

Officials who later responded could not find the craft.

Law enforcement presence was bolstered at Glenn Canyon Recreation Area after Wednesday’s discovery, but Kennell said significant manpower will not be shifted to the Lake Powell area until the evidence is processed.

The search command center is based in Cortez, where 40 to 60 officers are conducting searches of the rugged, twisting canyons to the northwest.

Kennell said officials considered halting the daily missions Friday, two weeks after the search began. But instead they decided to continue and "reassess on a daily basis."

"We are going to keep going," Kennell said. "We’re all tired. I had hoped this would be over in a week. I wish they would surrender, and I hope it ends peacefully."

The manhunt began May 29 after Pilon, 30, of Dove Creek; McVean, 26, of Durango; and Robert Mason, also 26 and from Durango, allegedly stole a water truck the night before in Ignacio.

Cortez police officer Dale Claxton pulled the truck over south of Cortez, and while waiting for backup to arrive, was riddled with automatic gunfire as he remained buckled into the front seat.

The three men drove away and abandoned the water truck – a theft with an unclear purpose – in McElmo Canyon, where they stole a flatbed truck from a man at gunpoint, police said.

As they were driving toward Hovenweep National Monument, a fleet of Montezuma County sheriff’s deputies gave chase in their patrol cars.

With one of the suspects reportedly shooting from the back of the flatbed, the trio sprayed nearly 500 rounds from automatic weapons at the pursuing deputies, wounding two and riddling at least seven cars with bullets.

The three eluded the officers and then fired at the superintendent of Hovenweep before abandoning the truck in the monument, just across the Utah line and near Cross Canyon, a long, twisting canyon that leads northeast into Colorado.

Investigators believe Pilon and McVean headed into the canyon while Mason headed west to Bluff, Utah.

Police say Mason shot at a social worker in Bluff June 5 before wounding a San Juan County, Utah, sheriff’s deputy who was called in to investigate. As SWAT teams were closing in on Mason’s shallow bunker along the San Juan River, investigators say he placed the barrel of a handgun in his mouth and killed himself.

Kennell said officers searched further south and north in Cross Canyon Friday than they had previously done, checking areas above Dove Creek and below Hovenweep.

The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the two suspects. Cortez Crimestoppers is also offering an $11,500 reward, of which Durango Crimestoppers contributed $500 Friday.

U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., said he secured a pledge for $250,000 in reward money from the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday, but that money has not yet been approved by the U.S. Department of Justice, spokesman John Russell said Friday.

"Right now the reward is just $50,000, plus any local reward," Russell said. "That is where it stands."