1 fugitive captured; 2 still at large

August 10, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

PHOENIX

Federal agents on Monday captured one of two inmates who escaped from an Arizona prison as he walked, armed with a handgun and a hitchhiking sign, in Wyoming, and were still hunting for the other fugitive and a suspected accomplice.

Convicted killer Tracy Province told authorities he was relieved that the manhunt was over for him when he was arrested about 6:20 a.m. in Meeteetse, Wyo., about 60 miles outside of Yellowstone National Park, said David Gonzales, the U.S. marshal for Arizona.

The other inmate, John McCluskey, and suspected accomplice Casslyn Welch were still on the lam.

Gonzales said agents were working on leads in Wyoming. He said they believed that McCluskey and Welch were no longer in tourist-packed Yellowstone, where more than 100 armed park rangers were patrolling amid an estimated 30,000 campers and tourists.

At the park’s northern entrance at Gardiner, Mont., rangers were given posters of the fugitives so they could check the passing cars. But they weren’t handing out the posters, nor were they advising entering motorists about the search.

Authorities tracked Province to the town with a resident’s help. On Sunday, the woman chatted briefly with Province on the steps of the church, Gonzales said. She called police after recognizing him on television.

When marshals and other law-enforcement officers arrested him, he initially denied being Province, Gonzales said. He was carrying a 9 mm handgun and a sign that said “Casper,” authorities said.

Province was at the Meeteetse Community Church at least an hour before the 10:30 a.m. service Sunday, said Jay Curtis, who plays drums for the nondenominational Christian church and welcomed Province.

Province, McCluskey and Daniel Renwick escaped from a private, medium-security Arizona State Prison near Kingman on July 30 after authorities say the 44-year-old Welch threw wire cutters over the perimeter fence. Welch is McCluskey’s fiancee and cousin.

The three later kidnapped two semitruck drivers at gunpoint and used the big rig to get away, authorities said. The group left the drivers unharmed in the truck at a stop just off Interstate 40 in Flagstaff and then fled. Renwick was arrested Aug. 1 in Colorado.

The manhunt intensified Saturday after evidence linked the two inmates and Welsh to the killings of an Oklahoma couple.