The search for two suspected cop-killers has been a lesson in contrasts – contrasts in cultures, temperatures and in search techniques. At times, the two fugitives appeared to be only a few feet away; at other times, they appeared to be in another county, state or even another nation.

Now, after 100 days in the desert, the manhunt has been reduced to a waiting game. Sightings of men resembling Alan "Monte" Pilon, now 31, of Dove Creek, and Jason Wayne McVean, now 27, of Durango, have become infrequent. Officers have returned to their routine patrols, always listening for the call that will send them back to the desert for a new search.

Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane said in an interview this week that a variety of factors – natural, logistical and technical – have enabled the two fugitives to elude one of the biggest manhunts in Rocky Mountain history.

"I don’t think that any agency in this country could be prepared for the type of search that went on here," Lane said. "Something I didn’t realize until recently is that the area we’re searching is roughly the size of Connecticut; when you look at it that way, it gives you some perspective of how much area they’ve got to roam."

The manhunt began on a Friday morning, May 29, after police said Pilon, McVean and a third suspect, Robert Mason, 26, of Durango, fired more than 18 rounds from a fully automatic assault rifle into a patrol car driven by Cortez police officer Dale Claxton. Claxton died instantly.

More than 500 officers from dozens of local, state and federal agencies converged on the Four Corners, scouring the desert canyons for any sign of the suspects. Within a few hours of Claxton’s shooting, special weapons and tactics teams from the Durango Police Department and the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office found an assault rifle and ammunition at an ambush site overlooking the flatbed truck the fugitives abandoned in Cross Canyon. Searchers believe the fugitives established the ambush site in case officers reached the truck quickly. Tracks were also found leading into the canyon.

After that, searchers found nothing until the following Thursday, June 4, when a Utah social worker reported that someone shot at him a few miles east of Bluff, Utah. Armed officers converged on the San Juan River near Bluff. Several hours later searchers discovered Mason’s body in a shallow bunker along the river. Mason, who was found with several weapons and bombs in his possession, shot himself with a handgun as searchers closed in on him.

Then the trail went cold. Since Mason died, searchers have had only unconfirmed sightings of Pilon and McVean.

Some observers blamed the investigators. The repeated assertions by officials that they were on the verge of finding Pilon and McVean, coupled with finger-pointing among police agencies when search efforts failed, attracted criticism. "There’s a Keystone Kops element in some of this," novelist Tony Hillerman said.

Lane said the fugitives stunned law enforcement officers with the power of their initial attack on Claxton and the ensuing chase.

"The amount of firepower that these people had and the way they used it was a real shocker for us," Lane said.

Lane said although Montezuma County Sheriff’s Capt. Joey Chavez organized the initial search of Cross Canyon well, most searchers were not used to pursuing fugitives in the desert environment.

"Most of the training that you get in searching is in buildings, and maybe that’s a downfall in the law enforcement community," Lane said. "The SWAT teams that came in from the metro areas were a tremendous help, but they were out of their element."

Navajo Nation Police Chief Leonard Butler said by bringing in assistance from agencies outside the Four Corners, authorities allowed the search to become too big to manage effectively.

"I think we should’ve maintained control of the size of the search," Butler said. "Our local law enforcement agencies could have taken care of it without calling in the federal agencies. But it got out of hand, and we paid for that."

Lane said when the search moved to Montezuma Creek, Utah, the fugitives again used their natural surroundings to hide from searchers.

"I think our inability to penetrate the river bottom was the deciding factor down there," Lane said. "Whether it was the toughness of the underbrush or our inability to get it burned, our inability to access the river bottom was when they got away from us."

La Plata County Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Bender, who took part in the initial search of Cross Canyon as well as searches near Montezuma Creek, said that although some searchers were prepared for a desert manhunt, the fugitives were more so.

"When Mason’s body was found, he had two sets of fatigues with him, one for the woods and one for the desert," Bender said. "We got our desert fatigues about a week after the manhunt started."

Bender said searchers immediately realized the level of training they were facing when they discovered the assault rifle and ammunition at the ambush site in Cross Canyon.

The fugitives may have had to rely on themselves to survive the initial days of the manhunt, but many authorities now believe someone is helping Pilon and McVean continue to hide.

"Somebody’s helping them," Lane said. "Whether it’s somebody from outside the area, somebody from inside the area, or somebody on the reservation, I have no idea. But I just can’t believe they can spend this amount of time out there and not be getting help."

Butler agrees.

"They are exceptionally prepared, both mentally and physically, if they’re not getting help," Butler said. "They’ve got bug bites, they’re drinking bad water, and so if they’re not being helped from the outside, how are they able to stay out there this long?"

Lane said reports of possible sightings and close-calls with the fugitives during July and August pushed his emotional limit.

"What was really frustrating for me was the fact that we wanted these guys so bad, and it didn’t seem like it was happening," Lane said. "We were so close, so many times. That’s tough on us as a department, with those sightings and emotions and adrenaline going so high and then just dumping you off the table."

While some authorities believe the two men may have left the Four Corners area, most believe they’re still here, tucked into a carefully chosen hideout somewhere near the Colorado/Utah border.

"My personal feeling is they’re back in the Cross Canyon area," Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane said. "Their little fling on the river is over, and I think they’re back up in Cross Canyon."

Lane said the Four Corners is a "comfort zone" for Pilon and McVean, who have spent extended periods in the desert since they were in high school.

"If they get out of their comfort zone, people in Dallas or Phoenix who don’t know them are going to turn them in in a second," Lane said. "But they’re in a comfort zone where there’s an element who isn’t going to turn them in."

Butler said ignorance of the fugitives’ whereabouts has caused tension in the Montezuma Creek area. "The people there are under a lot of pressure," he said.

Claxton’s shooting has put all law enforcement officials on edge, Butler said, including the Navajo Nation police officers.

"They’re a little more heads-up on what their surroundings are, and who they’re stopping," Butler said. "They don’t want to be a victim like Officer Claxton. They’ve been trained for their safety, and that might mean letting a vehicle go while they get backup."

Lane said his officers are learning to deal with the loss of a fellow officer.

"I can see the frustration on their faces," Lane said. "They want to get out and do more, but that’s kind of a waste of manpower and other resources if it’s just going out, rather than having a purpose."

A hundred days after Claxton’s shooting, Lane said a crucial element is missing from the department’s ability to cope with Claxton’s murder.

The tactical search for two survivalist fugitives has died down, but don’t think the manhunt is over.

At the command post in the Dale Claxton Memorial Building at the Cortez Police Department, investigators are continuing to try to unravel the master plan conceived by Alan "Monte" Pilon, now 31, of Dove Creek, Jason Wayne McVean, now 27, and Robert Mason, 26, both of Durango.

At the moment, investigators are still guessing, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation said this week.

"There’s lots of speculation, but we’ve still have no idea what the master plan was," FBI Special Agent Dot Graham said.What authorities know is that the three fugitives were heavily armed and extremely prepared when they were stopped in a stolen water truck by Cortez police officer Dale Claxton in Cortez May 29. A witness reported seeing one of the fugitives get out of the truck and unload more than 18 rounds from a fully automatic assault rifle into Claxton’s patrol car, killing him.

The manhunt that followed Claxton’s shooting swelled within a few hours from just a few Montezuma County Sheriff’s deputies – two of whom were injured in a high-speed gun battle – to more than 500 officers from dozens of local, state and federal agencies.

Mason was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound June 4 near Bluff, Utah, after wounding a San Juan County, Utah, sheriff’s deputy.

But despite high-tech equipment including night-vision goggles, listening equipment and military helicopters, the search for Pilon and McVean over the last 100 days has revealed little more than footprints in the sand.

Graham, who is working full-time at the Cortez command post, said she investigates every sighting and every possible lead. She currently receives about three leads per week, Graham said.

Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane said investigators have pursued leads in Alaska, California and Texas, but none of those leads turned out to have any merit.

"We had a woman vacationing in Alaska who saw a car registered in Montezuma County," Lane said. "We had the authorities there check it out, but it turned out to be another person vacationing in Alaska."

Lane said it’s frustrating for investigators to consistently reach dead-ends in the search for Pilon and McVean, but every lead is taken as if it could be the "big break."

"It would be pure neglect if you had any kind of a lead and you didn’t follow it up," Lane said.

Lane said although everyone has a theory for the fugitives’ master plan, no one knows for sure what the two were planning to do with the stolen water truck.

"I have heard stories from blowing up the Glen Canyon Dam, to the power station at Shiprock, to McPhee, to robbing the Ute Mountain Ute Casino, to hitting the money car from the casino," Lane said.

That lack of understanding of the fugitives’ motivation scares many of the men who are searching the desert for Pilon and McVean.

"My guys have been humbled not just by the environment, but also by the total unpredictability of these two fugitives," Navajo Nation Police Chief Leonard Butler said.

"We’re doing everything we can to figure out the plans that these guys are operating on, because then we can predict where to find them."

The families of Pilon and Mason refused to speak to the Herald.

Jason McVean’s father, Jim, said the media have already convicted his son.

"Most everybody that knew him felt a lot about him," McVean said. "I don’t care what the general public thinks."

Lane said investigators have enough solid evidence to convict Pilon and McVean for Claxton’s murder and for wounding sheriff’s Detective Todd Martin and sheriff’s deputy Jason Bishop.

He said he worries that if the fugitives are spotted again, the same jurisdictional squabbles that plagued the Montezuma Creek search may allow the two men to escape again.

"The problem that you have is that there are so many jurisdictions in the search area – the city of Cortez, Dolores County, Montezuma County, San Juan County, Utah, the Navajo Tribe, San Juan County, New Mexico," Lane said. "I don’t know how you get over that problem. If it were one jurisdiction, it’d be a lot easier."

Graham said the FBI is still leading the fugitive investigation, but said the tactical operations will be handled by local agencies.

"Whatever state they’re in, it’ll fall to those authorities to conduct the tactical operation," Graham said.

Lane said he’s hopeful the harsh desert winter will flush Pilon and McVean out of hiding.