This is a spooky incident that is playing out literally in my grandmother's back yard as I type this!
Utah police search for 2 men who shot hunters
Reuters Oct. 22, 2001 04:51:00
SALT LAKE CITY - Police today were searching for two men suspected of shooting to death two hunters and firing at police officers who chased them on foot, a police official said.
''The suspects are considered armed and dangerous,'' Helper City Chief of Police George Zamantakis said.
The victims' bodies were found Sunday evening near the Flaming Gorge Dam, a popular recreational area in northeast Utah, by a hunter who had heard shots, local media reports said. The victims were shot by handguns and their truck was stolen.
Police spotted the truck later and chased the suspects who abandoned the vehicle a short time later.
Police believe the two suspects escaped on foot into the rugged hills and canyons surrounding the mining community of Helper, Utah about 150 miles from where the victims were shot. Police said they did know the motive for the shootings.
''We did locate three weapons in the vehicle, two rifles and one handgun and other weapons are unaccounted for,'' Zamantakis said Monday.
Here's a follow-up:
SALT LAKE CITY - Police scoured the Price area of central Utah for a father and son suspected of slaying two Utah hunters.Kelly Carter, 27, and Brad Gross, both of the Vernal-Naples area of eastern Utah, were shot to death Sunday evening as they hunted in Dutch John Draw at the southern tip of Flaming Gorge Reservoir.
Their bodies were discovered by another member of the hunting party.
The assailants stole Gross' pickup truck.
Officers chased the truck south on U.S. 6 in Carbon County. One police cruiser's hood was pierced by one of several shots the suspects fired during the pursuit, officers said. The officers did not return fire,
Helper Police Chief George Zamantakis said.
Police stretched spikes across the highway, piercing the truck's tires. The truck continued for another one-half mile before it turned into a field and the suspects fled into a heavily wooded area along the
Price River, Zamantakis said.
Police recovered two rifles and a handgun from the truck, along with shell casings that did not match the recovered firearms. It was not known whether the suspects had fled with weapons. Authorities said they are searching for Lewis Heffelfinger, 53, and his son Michael Heffelfinger, 23,both of Albuquerque, N.M.
Officers with dogs searched woods in the south part of Price Monday night after a man reported he had given the suspects some food.
The man said the suspects looked tired and appeared to be unarmed.
Relatives of the victims said they had received few details about the killings.
"There are so many unanswered questions," said John Greene, Carter's father-in-law. "My daughter is taking it real hard. She's struggling. So is her mother."
Carter was the father of three children.
Relatives said the victims were camping in the area while with a third man, Sage McCormick. Carter and Gross dropped McCormick off at one ridge before heading down another ridge nearby, according to McCormick's brother, Dusty McCormick of Vernal.
Sage McCormick heard a rapid succession of gunfire, went to the area where the other men had been hunting and found them dead, with multiple gunshot wounds. He reported the shooting at a nearby gas station at about 7 p.m. Sunday. "He's been in shock." Dusty McCormick said. "He's having a hard time coping with everything."
A cashier at the Flaming Gorge tackle shop in Dutch John said she recognized the elder suspect when she saw his photograph on television Monday. The woman, who declined to give her name, told The Salt Lake Tribune that he knocked on her door Saturday night, apparently after crashing his vehicle. He wanted to know who owned the property adjacent to hers because he was leaving his truck there.
