Manhunt for Armed Husband and Wife Murder Suspects After They Escape in Utah

Law enforcement are searching for a couple, believed to be armed and dangerous, who managed to overpower guards and escape from a transport van in Utah.

Blane and Susan Barksdale, aged 56 and 59, were being extradited from New York to Pima County, Arizona, on first-degree murder charges when officials say the duo somehow managed to overtake guards of the van they were being transported in and escape Monday evening.

Since then, the couple has thus far managed to avoid capture. The United States Marshals Service is offering a $10,000 reward, per fugitive, for information leading to their arrest.

The Barksdales are wanted for the April murder of 72-year-old Frank Bligh, of Tucson, Arizona. After fleeing Arizona, the two, accused of murder as well as first-degree burglary, arson and other charges, were arrested a month later in Rochester, New York.

Along with Blane Barksdale’s nephew, Brent Mallard, 31, the couple is believed to have burglarized Bligh’s home and set it on fire, causing an explosion. The home wasn’t occupied during the fire, and police later determined that Bligh, last seen at a Tucson bar, had been murdered. Brent Mallard is being held at a jail in Arizona on arson and second-degree burglary charges.

Authorities warn that about 100 firearms were stolen from Bligh’s house and worry the Barksdales might have accessed the hidden cache of stolen weapons.

“With their original case, the person that they allegedly murdered, they also stole close to 100 firearms,” Michael Adams, a deputy U.S. marshal in Tucson, told the New York Times Wednesday. “We have to assume that they somehow made their way back to that weapons cache.”

It is still unclear how the two managed to overpower and escape the transport van. David Gonzalez, a U.S. marshal for the District of Arizona, said in a Thursday interview with KTAR News that the couple had an eight-hour head start on authorities.

“When they took advantage of these two, basically, security guards … they tied them up, left in them in the middle of nowhere,” Gonzalez said, noting it took the guards two or three hours to break out of the van.

Gonzalez said the duo were able to get a vehicle from an acquaintance in northern Arizona. He also said that this was not the first time the Barksdales had fled law enforcement.

“We were kind of shocked because we initially arrested them back in May for the murder in Tucson,” Gonzalez said. “They were on the run, and we tracked them to western New York, and then we knew it’d just be a matter of time before they got back to Tucson to face charges.”

Tucson police, the Pima County Sheriff’s Office, the Apache County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the FBI are all assisting with the investigation.

The couple was last seen driving a red GMC Sierra truck with Arizona plates. Officials said they have information the Barksdales might be traveling through Arizona.

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