Fugitive found dead in canal

PROSSER, Wash. – A man sought on two felony warrants who eluded capture after a traffic stop has been found dead in an apparent drowning in an irrigation canal, authorities said.

The body of Dino D. Guerrero, 30, of Yakima, was discovered Monday in a debris and fish screen on the Chandler Canal, which diverts water from the Yakima River at Prosser Dam for the Kennewick Irrigation District, Benton County sheriff’s deputies said.

Guerrero was a passenger in a car that was stopped by a sheriff’s deputy Sunday morning for investigation of an equipment violation. The driver was cooperative, but Guerrero took off on foot and could not be found by deputies, state troopers, local police and a tracking dog, Deputy Joseph Lusignan Jr. said.

Guerrero was wanted on warrants accusing him of escape from state community custody and of possession of stolen property in Yakima County.

Mark Briggs, a Bureau of Reclamation employee, said he was making routine checks the next morning and found the body.

Lusignan said investigators were unsure where Guerrero entered the canal, which runs about 1,200 feet from where the car was stopped.