08-15-2010, 08:20 AM
how terribly sad...these two people on their annual camping trip...why them? so vicious! they need to be caught! probably in Canada by now.
SANTA ROSA, N.M. -- Lost in the Bonnie and Clyde tale of Arizona fugitives on the run for two weeks is the grisly slaying of an Oklahoma couple whose bodies were found in a burned-out travel trailer on a remote ranch in eastern New Mexico.
Police have linked the deaths of Gary and Linda Haas last week to the inmates and the woman who helped them escape, but they are keeping a tight lid on what happened as the couple traveled to an annual camping trip with friends in Colorado.
Family and friends say they have no idea how the Haases' paths would have crossed with escaped convicts John McCluskey and Tracy Province and their accomplice, Casslyn Welch. Blood inside the couple's pickup -- found days later in Albuquerque -- makes the family certain of one thing: The 61-year-olds put up a fight.
"So much of the story has been the bad guys this and the bad guys that," said Cathy Byus, the Haases' daughter. "That's important too. We want them out there too, but we don't want people to forget the human side of this."
Authorities say Welch helped McCluskey, Province and Daniel Renwick escape from the Arizona State Prison in Kingman on July 31 by throwing wire cutters over a fence. Renwick and Province have since been captured, but McCluskey and Welch -- who are cousins and also engaged -- are still on the run.
Renwick split off from the group before the Oklahoma couple was killed; New Mexico police say the rest of the group has been linked through forensic evidence to the deaths.
The Haases had made the trip to Pagosa Springs, Colo., for the past 11 summers, the family said. After leaving their home in Tecumseh, Okla., their first stop would always be the campground at Santa Rosa Lake State Park, where they liked to camp at the back near the lake for a night or two before heading north.
Always along for the ride were the Haases' three small dogs -- Prissy, Roxie and Bear.
If it hadn't been for Prissy, the family says, they still might not know what had happened.
A rancher found the charred travel trailer Aug. 4 behind an old barn in a remote area northwest of Santa Rosa and called Guadalupe County Sheriff Michael Lucero. Inside the trailer were the remains of two people, and nearby, the sheriff found two dogs, both sunburned and one with burns on her back and paws.
Prissy's tag listed Byus' phone number, and the sheriff called her.
The Haases' truck was tracked to Albuquerque through its Onstar vehicle communication system about 100 miles away, and a few days later the remains found in the trailer were positively identified as Gary and Linda.
"Even after hearing about the trailer and everything, I was still in denial," said Byus, who recently got married and is expecting her first child, a boy who would have been the Haases' first grandchild. "I kept thinking I was going to wake up. I was walking around like I was in a dream and that they were going to find them."
Byus and the rest of her family have been in Santa Rosa for more than a week, helping investigators and making regular trips to the site where her parents were found to search for the dog Bear, who is still missing.
Ranch hands moving cattle across the vast, dusty plain say they have seen no sign of the little black dog, but the family isn't giving up.
"I want to go home with the whole family -- mom and dad, Bear and everybody here," Byus said, holding back tears. "That's my biggest thing. I just want everybody home together."
SANTA ROSA, N.M. -- Lost in the Bonnie and Clyde tale of Arizona fugitives on the run for two weeks is the grisly slaying of an Oklahoma couple whose bodies were found in a burned-out travel trailer on a remote ranch in eastern New Mexico.
Police have linked the deaths of Gary and Linda Haas last week to the inmates and the woman who helped them escape, but they are keeping a tight lid on what happened as the couple traveled to an annual camping trip with friends in Colorado.
Family and friends say they have no idea how the Haases' paths would have crossed with escaped convicts John McCluskey and Tracy Province and their accomplice, Casslyn Welch. Blood inside the couple's pickup -- found days later in Albuquerque -- makes the family certain of one thing: The 61-year-olds put up a fight.
"So much of the story has been the bad guys this and the bad guys that," said Cathy Byus, the Haases' daughter. "That's important too. We want them out there too, but we don't want people to forget the human side of this."
Authorities say Welch helped McCluskey, Province and Daniel Renwick escape from the Arizona State Prison in Kingman on July 31 by throwing wire cutters over a fence. Renwick and Province have since been captured, but McCluskey and Welch -- who are cousins and also engaged -- are still on the run.
Renwick split off from the group before the Oklahoma couple was killed; New Mexico police say the rest of the group has been linked through forensic evidence to the deaths.
The Haases had made the trip to Pagosa Springs, Colo., for the past 11 summers, the family said. After leaving their home in Tecumseh, Okla., their first stop would always be the campground at Santa Rosa Lake State Park, where they liked to camp at the back near the lake for a night or two before heading north.
Always along for the ride were the Haases' three small dogs -- Prissy, Roxie and Bear.
If it hadn't been for Prissy, the family says, they still might not know what had happened.
A rancher found the charred travel trailer Aug. 4 behind an old barn in a remote area northwest of Santa Rosa and called Guadalupe County Sheriff Michael Lucero. Inside the trailer were the remains of two people, and nearby, the sheriff found two dogs, both sunburned and one with burns on her back and paws.
Prissy's tag listed Byus' phone number, and the sheriff called her.
The Haases' truck was tracked to Albuquerque through its Onstar vehicle communication system about 100 miles away, and a few days later the remains found in the trailer were positively identified as Gary and Linda.
"Even after hearing about the trailer and everything, I was still in denial," said Byus, who recently got married and is expecting her first child, a boy who would have been the Haases' first grandchild. "I kept thinking I was going to wake up. I was walking around like I was in a dream and that they were going to find them."
Byus and the rest of her family have been in Santa Rosa for more than a week, helping investigators and making regular trips to the site where her parents were found to search for the dog Bear, who is still missing.
Ranch hands moving cattle across the vast, dusty plain say they have seen no sign of the little black dog, but the family isn't giving up.
"I want to go home with the whole family -- mom and dad, Bear and everybody here," Byus said, holding back tears. "That's my biggest thing. I just want everybody home together."