MoreyUnit | Ranger who helped nab Arizona fugitives may not get $40K reward

The U.S. Forest Service employee who helped capture two fugitives in Arizona last month might not be eligible for the $40,000 reward offered for the apprehension of John McCluskey and Casslyn Welch.

The Forest Service has not identified the employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, but the ranger applied for the $40,000 reward that the U.S. Marshals Service and a private prison company offered for the capture of the two fugitives. McCluskey escaped from a private prison near Kingman on July 30 along with two other inmates, and authorities believe Welch helped them.

A U.S. Marshals Service agent said Wednesday that authorities were waiting for the Forest Service to officially determine whether the ranger is eligible for the reward under the agency's ethics guidelines.

The forest ranger was performing his routine duties Aug. 19 at a campground southeast of Sunrise Ski Resort and thought he saw an unattended campfire. He noticed a car tucked into the trees, leading the ranger to believe the car's owners were attempting to hide the vehicle.

The ranger later spoke with the car's owner and told him to leave the campground. While there, the ranger copied down the car's license plate. Authorities later determined the plate was reported stolen from a car near Santa Rosa, N.M., the same place where McCluskey is a suspect in the double murder of an Oklahoma couple.

The man who spoke with the ranger was later identified as McCluskey, who reportedly told arresting officers that he should have killed the U.S. Forest Service ranger when he had the chance.

Instead, a SWAT team arrested McCluskey and Welch several hours later, bringing an end to a nationwide manhunt that had stretched for three weeks.

Before the Forest Service employee spotted the couple, investigators said publicly that the leads on the fugitives had grown cold.

A U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman said an official ruling on whether the ranger is eligible for the reward could be issued this week.

McCluskey was serving a 15-year sentence for attempted murder at the time of his escape. The two other inmates who fled with him, Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick, were serving time for murder.

Investigators say Welch, who is both McCluskey's cousin and his fiancee, walked up to a fence surrounding the prison on the evening of July 30 and threw cutting tools into the yard. McCluskey, Province and Renwick cut through the fence.

The group separated and Renwick headed north, where he was recaptured two days after his escape when he exchanged gunfire with police in western Colorado.

Province was caught Aug. 9 in a small town in Wyoming after a resident recognized his photo from media coverage about the prison escape. Province was carrying a 9mm gun at the time of his arrest, but like McCluskey and Welch, he was taken without incident.