When the local newspaper hits the porch, Sue Claxton picks it up and stashes it somewhere. She won’t read it.

Her television is unplugged. She won’t watch it.

Some might think Claxton would be eager to rip the rubber band off the newspaper and shake out the front page. Or that she would be glued to television newscasts.

News that searchers finally apprehended two armed survivalists suspected of shooting to death Claxton’s husband would end a 44-day trauma for her family.

But Claxton isn’t relying on the media to keep abreast of the manhunt.

"I can’t stand the emotional charge," Claxton said Saturday. "It’s been a roller coaster. It’s hogwash and I don’t need to deal with that."

Claxton is talking about how often breaking news of the search says they are close to capturing the suspected cop-killers. Many times in the past month-and-a-half, police have reported that they are hot on the heels of the two men thought to be hiding in the dense underbrush around the San Juan River in Montezuma Creek, Utah. The "almost got them" reports aren’t good news to Claxton; they only upset her more.

"I need to focus on that these men need to be stopped," she said.

She stands firm on suppressing news accounts of the search. She said she’s frustrated that there is too much misinformation and miscommunication.

Claxton’s husband, Dale, a Cortez police officer, was shot and killed May 29 moments after he pulled over a reportedly-stolen water truck. The truck’s occupants wore ski masks, camouflage and carried semi-automatic assault rifles. It was the first event in a daylong gun battle.

Police since have surmised the two surviving men, Jason McVean and Alan Pilon, are anti-government and that is why Dale Claxton was killed.

But even so, Claxton still fears the gunmen. She thinks civilians who claim they aren’t in danger are naive. Claxton called it the ostrich syndrome.

"People can’t continue to put their heads in the sand. These guys could be anybody’s next-door neighbor. Nobody is safe," she said. "These guys will kill anybody because they have no conscience."

Claxton hears bits and pieces of the manhunt’s progress – or lack thereof.

She communicates with friends and family who now and then tell her what they’ve heard. She dismisses them – partly because she’s frustrated that the suspects are still on the lam.

Claxton won’t say whom she is frustrated with. She doesn’t want to get into finger-pointing or surmise how, and if, politics and bureaucracy are to blame. She did express discontent that several reports to search leaders by Navajo tribe members living in Montezuma Creek were seemingly brushed off.

Two weeks ago, Mark Maryboy, a San Juan County, Utah, commissioner and Navajo Tribal Council representative, said Montezuma Creek residents had repeatedly seen McVean and Pilon in the area during the past month. Maryboy said residents had seen the men at squaw dances and hanging out on the banks of the river where they have taken fish from children.

"They’ve been mooching food from people and supposedly getting help from civilians but the reports have been ignored," Claxton said.

"It’s like the boy who cried wolf after a while. Whether it’s been a manpower issue or not, I don’t know, but these people have been ignored."

But Claxton concedes no matter how many leads searchers get, the element of danger may dictate their moves.

"Police are putting their lives on the line," she said. "It’s not going to change my life if they are captured or killed. I know where my husband is. It’s a safety issue and that’s the only thing it will change."

And because she can’t do anything to diminish the danger, Claxton isn’t dwelling on how the suspects are managing to stay one step ahead of searchers.

"They deserve no more thought than a bug on a windshield," she said bitterly. "If I give them that much they win."

Claxton said she’s expending her energy on recovering from the death of her husband. When he was killed, the family was in the middle of a major home remodeling. She said within 10 minutes of hearing the news of her husband’s death, friends told her not to worry about the remodeling.

"They all rallied and the community is finishing our house," she said. "People have bent over backwards and I don’t think there’s going to be an end to that. This man (Dale), his life and this situation has profoundly affected this community. I don’t have words to express it, and I’m very rarely at a loss for words."

As for knowing when, and if, the suspects are ultimately caught, Claxton said she’ll hear it from Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane.