Escapee captured in Wyoming
He sang in church Sunday; ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ sought
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – An escaped killer with a handgun and a hitchhiking sign expressed relief at his capture on Monday after 10 days on the run, while authorities searched to the north of this tourist-packed park for a second fugitive and his female accomplice.
Tracy Province, 42, was caught as he walked in sleepy Meeteetse, Wyo., steps from a church where he sat in the pews a day earlier and sang “Your Grace Is Enough.”
The search for inmate John McCluskey, 45, and Casslyn Welch, 44, focused for a time on sprawling Yellowstone National Park, which straddles Wyoming and Montana. The U.S. Marshals Service said late Monday it has received tips from the area east of Glacier National Park.
“They consider themselves as Bonnie and Clyde,” U.S. Marshal David Gonzales said at a news conference in Phoenix. “This is very, very serious business.”
Province, McCluskey and Daniel Renwick escaped from a private, medium-security Arizona State Prison near Kingman on July 30 after authorities say Welch threw wire cutters over the perimeter fence. Welch is McCluskey’s fiancée and cousin. Renwick, who turns 37 today, was captured in Colorado.
Efforts to find the remaining three intensified after they were linked to a double homicide in New Mexico, with the case airing Saturday on “America’s Most Wanted.”
On Sunday, Province walked into Meeteetse Community Church, about 60 miles outside of Yellowstone, worshipper Jay Curtis said.
“Just shook his hand and said ‘Welcome, welcome to our church,’ ” said Curtis, a member of the church band. “He just smiled and said ‘Thank you.’ ”
A woman who had chatted briefly with Province on the steps of the church on Sunday called police after recognizing him later on television, Gonzales said.
When marshals and other law enforcement officers arrested him, he initially denied being the fugitive, Gonzales said. He was carrying a 9 mm handgun and a sign that said “Casper,” a city about 160 miles to the southeast, authorities said.
Province was scheduled for an extradition hearing this morning.
The Arizona attorney general’s office on Monday charged two women, including McCluskey’s mother, with helping the inmates after they escaped.
Province was serving a life sentence for murder and robbery out of Pima County, Ariz. McCluskey was serving a 15-year prison term for attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault out of Maricopa County, Ariz.