Another sighting, another dead end in manhunt
Copyright © 1998 The Durango Herald. All rights reserved.

July 10, 1998

By Joshua Moore
Herald Staff Writer

In an increasingly frustrating and potentially deadly game of cat and mouse, several Navajo trackers spotted two men matching the descriptions of two suspected cop-killers walking around a campfire near the San Juan River Tuesday night. But a search Wednesday morning failed to turn up any trace of the two men.

Montezuma County Sheriff Sherman Kennel said he and 10 special weapons and tactics team members went Wednesday to Montezuma Creek, Utah, on the Navajo Indian Reservation, to assist Navajo tribal police officers who were searching the area where the two men had been spotted. The searchers found the campfire, but no trace of the suspects, Kennel said.

One Navajo officer who had seen the men through night-vision goggles told Kennel the men looked like Alan "Monte" Pilon, 30, of Dove Creek, and Jason Wayne McVean, 26, of Durango. As of Thursday, the two men had eluded searchers for 42 days after allegedly shooting to death Cortez police officer Dale Claxton and wounding two Montezuma County sheriff’s deputies before fleeing into Cross Canyon, west of Cortez, on May 29.

A third suspect, Robert Mason, 26, of Durango, was found dead June 4 near Bluff, Utah, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after injuring a San Juan County, Utah, sheriff’s deputy.

Kennel said he was told the two men were wearing camouflage clothing when five or six Navajo trackers spotted them on the south bank of the San Juan River.

"Quite a few people saw them, and I wouldn’t dispute any of them," Kennel said.

Kennel said the Navajo officers had established a "skirmish line" a distance away from the men, but when they swept the area at sunrise they found no traces except the remnants of the campfire.

The dense tamarisk and Russian olive trees along the river prevented the 10-person SWAT team from completing an effective search, Kennel said. It would take 50-75 men to search the area properly, Kennel said.

Navajo Tribal Police Sgt. Tyrone Benally said he could not confirm that the men whom the searchers saw were Pilon and McVean.

The search for Pilon and McVean has focused on the San Juan River since June 28, when a 9-year-old girl reported seeing two men wearing camouflage and carrying assault rifles trying to steal a water truck in Montezuma Creek.

On June 30, Navajo trackers got within 25 yards of two men they believed to be Pilon and McVean, but failed to find them in an early-morning search of the area. The searchers did find tracks in that area that matched some found beside the water truck in Montezuma Creek and at the rim of Cross Canyon.

Fires set along the river on July 2 failed to expose the two suspects partially because the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service rescinded an offer to use their fire-starting equipment, San Juan County, Utah, Sheriff Mike Lacy said Thursday.

"The fires would have been successful with the right equipment," Lacy said. "The Forest Service and the BLM had promised the equipment several times, and then they just backed out."

The frustration searchers are feeling is becoming increasingly apparent as more reliable sightings are reported and the suspects remain on the loose.

"I’ve never been up against something like this before. It’s so frustrating," Kennel said. "I don’t know if they turn into a lizard during the day or what."

The repeated sightings of Pilon and McVean are starting to try the patience of other law enforcement officers, including Sheriff Lacy.

"The Navajo police have cried wolf more than a few times," Lacy said. "We’ve had six or seven leads since last week, but still nothing concrete."

Benally said it would make sense that the two suspects had a police scanner with them, but wouldn’t confirm a report that Navajo trackers had begun speaking the Navajo language to hide their radio traffic.

The Montezuma County Sheriff’s Department continued to contribute personnel to the search even after its focus moved across county and state lines into Utah.

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