Authorities in Mesa County canceled the hunt for two fugitives after 18 searchers failed to locate the suspects in the area of a reported sighting, a spokeswoman for the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.

A Mesa County resident was riding horses with his family about two miles east of the Utah state line and 14 miles west of Glade Park Saturday when he came over a ridge and came within 30 feet of two men sitting near a campsite, said Janet Prell, an information specialist with the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office.

The two men were noticeably displeased to see the man and his family, Prell said, and the man turned quickly away and headed back the way he had come.

Prell said the man got a good look at one of the men, whom he said looked like Alan "Monte" Pilon, 30, of Dove Creek. The men were reportedly sitting next to two pickup trucks and a tarp, Prell said.

Because of the remote location and the two men’s demeanor and appearance, the man believed they were Pilon and Jason McVean, 26, of Durango.

"He felt sure enough in what he had seen that we felt we needed to look into it," Prell said.

Pilon and McVean have eluded authorities for 70 days after allegedly shooting Cortez police officer Dale Claxton and wounding two sheriff’s deputies before fleeing into Cross Canyon on May 29. A third suspect, Robert Mason, 26, of Durango, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound June 4 near Bluff, Utah, after wounding a sheriff’s deputy.

The man accompanied searchers from the Colorado Air National Guard, the Bureau of Land Management, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office and the Grand Junction Police Department as they used an airplane, a helicopter and other vehicles to search the area around the sighting, Prell said.

Searchers found evidence of several camps and located tire tracks from the two trucks, Prell said, but never found the two men. She did not know if any footprints were found at the scene.

The man reported the sighting to officials at the Cortez Police Department on Tuesday afternoon, Prell said, and the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office was notified Wednesday morning. Prell could not explain why the man had waited three days to report the sighting, but said the area where the men were spotted is extremely remote.

Wednesday, investigators interviewed the man and showed him photographs of the two suspects to determine the credibility of the sighting, Prell said. Based upon that interview, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office decided to launch a search of the area, she said.

Prell said authorities were able to launch the search quickly because a Colorado Air National Guard helicopter was stationed in Delta as part of "Operation Clean Sweep," a drug eradication program on the western slope.