A college student in Utah and his younger brother may have helped police close an open case involving a park ranger who was shot and wounded five years ago.
Caleb Shumway, a 23-year-old student at Utah Valley University, and his 15-year-old brother went searching for the primary suspect in the case during the Christmas break from school, according to The Guardian.
The two boys searched the remote area of Moab, Utah that more than 100 officers once searched in 2010 when Lance Leeroy Arellano fled after shooting park ranger Brody Young nine times, wounding him in various places. In a small, narrow cave they found what officials believe are Arellano's skeletal remains with a bag containing a handgun and ammo.
The Grand County Sherriff's Office confirmed the news in a press release on Thursday. Officials said Shumway came to Moab during his holiday break from school in order to try and find Arellano or "any evidence" pointing to his whereabouts.
KSL.com noted Arellano fled in a vehicle that was found during the search, but the man was gone. It is not clear if the gun found the bag was the weapon Arellano used to shoot Young.
"It's rugged and (there's) lots of sandstone," Shumway told KSL News. "Lots of water runs through there, so there's lots of deep caves."
"I noticed, tucked up in the inside of this cave, just under a slanted rock, was a bag - and it wasn't supposed to be there, wasn't natural," he said. "So I reached over, and as I pulled on it I noticed it was really heavy. And as I was pulling on it, it ripped open and revealed one pistol. I saw one .44-caliber magazine, a pair of binoculars and a bag."
The state medical examiner's evaluation is still pending, KSL.com reported, but if the remains are confirmed to be Arellano's, Shumway will claim the $30,000 reward for finding him.
