Feds join search for suspects in Utah double-murder, Wendover shooting
This undated image made from surveillance video, provided by the West Wendover Police Department, shows an unidentified male who police suspect is one of two people involved in the killing of an elderly couple in their Utah home and shooting a woman in the head outside a Nevada casino. (AP Photo/West Wendover Police Department)
This undated image made from surveillance video, provided by the West Wendover Police Department, shows an unidentified male who police suspect is one of two people involved in the killing of an elderly couple in their Utah home and shooting a woman in the head outside a Nevada casino. (AP Photo/West Wendover Police Department)
SALT LAKE CITY– Federal authorities joined a manhunt Monday for two fugitives described as “very dangerous” who are suspected of killing an elderly couple in their Utah home and shooting a woman in the head outside a Nevada casino.
“We have an extremely dangerous situation going on,” Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Jim Phelps told The Associated Press.
Few details were released by a federal fugitive task force working with authorities in the two states.
The crime spree involved a shooting Saturday in the parking lot of a West Wendover, Nev., casino, when a man and woman tried to carjack another woman. The victim fought back but was shot in the head while escaping. She was hospitalized and is expected to survive.
“Had she not resisted in the manner that she did, she probably would have been a third victim,” Phelps said.
The suspects later stole a car as it idled outside a hotel in Wells, Nev., about 50 miles west of the casino. A 50-mile chase by authorities along Interstate 80 reached speeds of nearly 100 mph before the suspects turned onto a dirt road and disappeared about 35 miles from the Utah border., Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Jim Stewart said.
“We haven’t seen them since,” he said.
Police in West Wendover found items in a car abandoned by the suspects that led them to the home of Leroy and Dorotha Fullwood, 70 and 69 respectively, in Mount Pleasant, Utah, about 100 miles south of Salt Lake City. The couple had been shot to death.
“Because of the nature of the double homicide, plus the shooting out in West Wendover, we obviously know that there are two very dangerous individuals on the streets,” Phelps said.
The suspects were last seen driving a stolen gray Volkswagen Jetta with Colorado license plate 725WHX.
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AP Writer Paul Foy contributed to this report.