Hunt intensifies for 'Bonnie and Clyde' couple linked to camper van murders

Tracy Province, 42, was caught as he walked in sleepy Meeteetse,

Wyoming, steps from a church where he sat in the pews a day earlier.

The search for inmate John McCluskey, 45, and Casslyn Welch, 44,

focused for a time on Yellowstone National Park, which straddles

Wyoming and Montana.

But authorities now believe the two fled the park with agents following leads in Montana.

"They consider themselves as Bonnie and Clyde," US Marshal David Gonzales said at a news conference in Phoenix. "This is very, very serious business."

Province, McCluskey and Daniel Renwick escaped from a private, medium-security Arizona State Prison near Kingman on July 30 after authorities said Welch threw wire cutters over the perimeter fence.

Welch is McCluskey's fiancee and cousin. Renwick, who turns 37 on Tuesday, was captured in Colorado.

Efforts to find the remaining three intensified after they were linked to a double homicide in New Mexico, with the case airing last Saturday on America's Most Wanted.

On Sunday, Province walked into Meeteetse Community Church, about 60 miles outside of Yellowstone, looking like one of the many hitchhikers who pass through town, worshipper Jay Curtis said.

A woman who chatted briefly with Province on the steps of the church called police after recognising him later on television, Mr Gonzales said.

When marshals and other law enforcement officers arrested him, he initially denied being the fugitive, Mr Gonzales said. He was carrying a 9mm handgun and a sign that said Casper, a city about 160 miles to the southeast, authorities said.

Gonzales said a $40,000 reward was set for McCluskey and Welch's

capture.

The Arizona Attorney General's Office charged two women, including McCluskey's mother, with helping the inmates after they escaped.

Province was serving a life sentence for murder and robbery. McCluskey was serving a 15-year prison term for attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharge of a firearm.

Forensic evidence linked the two inmates and Welch to the killings of an Oklahoma couple. New Mexico State Police spokesman Peter Olson declined to elaborate.

The burned remains of Linda and Gary Haas – both 61 and from Tecumseh, Oklahoma – were found in a charred camper van on a ranch in eastern New Mexico.