'Bonnie and Clyde' Fugitives John McCluskey and Casslyn Welch Accused of Kidnapping, Murder

Aug. 23, 2010 — -- Two Arizona inmates who escaped last month and their alleged accomplice have been charged with murder and carjacking a couple while they were on the lam.

Federal prosecutors in New Mexico said that 45-year-old John McCluskey, 42-year-old Tracy Province and their alleged accomplice, 44-year-old Casslyn Welch, are responsible for the carjacking and shooting deaths of Gary and Linda Haas of Tecumseh, Okla., according to The Associated Press.

The trio reportedly encountered the couple Aug. 2 -- three days after their prison escape -- at a rest stop in New Mexico.

U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzales said the Haases were traveling to Pagosa Springs, Colo., for a camping trip when they were shot and killed by McCluskey, who was drawn to their camping trailer. Gonzalez said they were "two people on vacation who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time."

After killing the couple, the fugitives then drove the trailer to a remote area in New Mexico's Guadalupe County, where they burned and abandoned the trailer, according to the report.

McCluskey and Welch, the fugitive couple some had called a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, were captured at an Arizona campground last week after a three-week cross-country manhunt.

Province, a convicted murder, was arrested Aug. 9 outside a church in Meeteetse, Wyo., after being spotted with McCluskey and Welch the week before in the area around Yellowstone Park.

McCluskey and Welch were taken into custody near the town of Springerville, Ariz., near the border with New Mexico, Aug. 20. The duo told authorities that if given the chance, they would have shot it out with police.

The beginning of the end for the escaped Arizona inmate and his suspected accomplice, who had eluded law enforcement for weeks, came when a forest service ranger saw an unattended campfire and a silver vehicle at a campground in the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest.