John McCluskey was captured Thursday night, three weeks after he escaped from an Arizona prison.
Casslyn Welch, Mr. McCluskey’s fiancée, was also captured Thursday night.
PHOENIX — The escaped inmate and his fiancée who were captured Thursday night after three weeks on the run had used their knowledge of the wilderness, their ability to talk a good game and their guns to elude a huge multistate search, the authorities said.
It took an alert forest ranger to bring their long, violent escapade across much of the West to an end.
John McCluskey, 45, who escaped from an Arizona prison with two fellow inmates on July 30, was arrested in a remote area of northeastern Arizona with Casslyn Welch, 44, his fiancée and first cousin , who is believed to have been the one to spring the trio.
Mr. McCluskey and Ms. Welch were camping in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest when a ranger spotted an untended campfire and an oddly parked car. After speaking briefly with Mr. McCluskey, the ranger checked the license plate, found that it belonged to a stolen car and notified law enforcement personnel.
The couple were armed and were with another man whom they had befriended along the way when Apache County sheriff’s deputies moved in.
While being arrested, Ms. Welch reached for a gun hidden in the small of her back, the authorities said. Mr. McCluskey, who was lying on a sleeping bag in front of a tent when deputies pounced on him, later told officials that he had a gun in the tent and that he should have used it on the ranger.
Mr. McCluskey, who was serving a 15-year sentence for attempted murder, escaped from a privately run detention center near Kingman along with Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick, both of whom were serving time for murder. Ms. Welch is accused of throwing wire cutters over the fence of the medium-security prison to aid in the escape.
The getaway was very much a family affair, the authorities said. Mr. McCluskey’s mother, Claudia Washburn, was arrested on charges that she helped her son and niece flee by giving them money. His former wife, Diana Joy Glattfelder, was also charged with aiding in the escape by driving Mr. McCluskey, Ms. Welch and Mr. Province during their initial getaway.
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives." Winter is Coming Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
, who is believed to have been the one to spring the trio.
