'Bonnie and Clyde' Crime Spree Suspects Arrested Without a Fight
Jan. 3, 2012— -- A couple dubbed "the modern-day Bonnie and Clyde" after a murderous crime spree and chase that led investigators across two states, gave up without a fight today when police tracked them down in Nevada.
Logan McFarland, 24, and Angela Atwood, 25, are suspected of the murder of an elderly couple in Mount Pleasant, Utah, another attempted murder and the carjacking of a woman's vehicle, which then set off a police pursuit across 330 miles of Utah and Nevada over five days.
McFarland and Atwood were arrested this afternoon near the Big Springs Ranch by Elko County, Nev., sheriff's deputies, a U.S. Marshals spokesman told ABC affiliate KTVX in Salt Lake City.
A rancher who is also an Elko County commissioner was in a plane checking on his cattle today when he spotted the two walking about 30 miles west of Wendover, and he contacted police, U.S. Marshals spokesman Jim Phelps said.
"We flew and looked and sure enough we found them," rancher Demar Dahl told The Associated Press. "We didn't have any cell phone coverage, so we followed them for a ways, just circling them. We flew low, right down next to them."
After getting a closer look, he said, he flew to where his cell phone would work and called police.
Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Jim Stewart, who was there for the arrest, told the AP it was "pretty calm."
He said McFarland and Atwood simply said: "We give up."
Neither of the two had been charged yet this evening, and federal officials said they would drop a charge of unlawful flight to let state authorities handle the case.
Police say the couple's crime spree began last Thursday when they stole a car in Moroni, Utah, about 100 miles south of Salt Lake City. A day later and eight miles away, police say the suspects broke into the home of retired couple Leroy and Dorothy Fullwood.
Investigators found signs of a struggle inside the home and believe the Fullwoods, who were found dead on New Year's Eve, were murdered after a botched robbery. Surveillance video later captured the male suspect at a convenience store, allegedly using the couple's stolen credit cards.
"A credit card receipt was found in the vehicle that corresponded with residence here," Police Chief Jim Wilberg of the Mt. Pleasant, Utah, police department said. "They ransacked the house. There is a lot of evidence that's been collected."
Police believe that after stealing the Fullwoods' car the suspects drove more than 200 miles into Nevada, where the next morning they carjacked a woman at gunpoint. The couple allegedly shot the woman in the head as she managed to escape. Miraculously, the victim made her way to a Nevada police station, then was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
"[The victim] was transported by an ambulance here to an awaiting medical helicopter," Sgt. David Wiskerchen of the West Wendover, Nev., police department told ABC News.
She is recovering at a Salt Lake City hospital after undergoing surgery, according to KTVX.
Police managed to catch up with the suspects on a Nevada highway, pursuing them at speeds more than 100 miles per hour, but the two avoided a spike trap and managed to elude state troopers on back-country roads.
That was the last police saw of them until the rancher led them to where he'd seen them walking.
