Credit: AP
Photo made from body camera footage and released by the Twin Falls, Idaho, Police Department.

CRIME
Deaths of dog walker, 83, and resident of a remote cabin possibly tied to escaped Idaho inmate

Investigators said Thursday that while on the run, Meade and Umphenour may have been responsible for the deaths of two men.

Author: Associated Press, GENE JOHNSON
MARK THIESSEN
Published: 2:21 PM MDT March 23, 2024
Updated: 2:21 PM MDT March 23, 2024

IDAHO, USA — Authorities said Friday they believe the deaths of an 83-year-old man who was walking his dogs and a 72-year-old man who lived in a remote cabin are connected to the escape of an Idaho white supremacist prison gang member and an accomplice after a Boise hospital ambush.

The escaped prisoner, Skylar Meade, and the accomplice, a recently released inmate named Nicholas Umphenour — both members of the Aryan Knights gang — were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho, on Thursday afternoon. Their arrests came 36 hours after Umphenour shot and wounded two Idaho corrections officers while they were preparing to return Meade to prison from a hospital, police said.

Investigators said Thursday that while on the run, Meade and Umphenour may have been responsible for the deaths of two men, one in Nez Perce County and the other in Clearwater County, both in northern Idaho, about seven hours away from where they were arrested.

Coroners on Friday identified the victim in Nez Perce County as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, who was reported missing on Wednesday when he left home in his silver Chrysler Pacifica minivan to take his two dogs — a white Jack Russell terrier and a brown Chesapeake Bay retriever — to a walking path.

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