Tucson Fugitive Couple Likely Getting Aid From White Supremacists

ARIZONA – Fifty-six-year-old Blane Barksdale, a Tucson murder suspect escapee, is the most recent addition to the U.S. Marshals Service’s 15 most wanted fugitives list. The reward for information leading to his arrest has been raised accordingly from $10K to $25K. His wife and alleged partner in crime, 59-year-old Susan Barksdale, still has a $10K bounty on her head. Meanwhile, the latest development in the Barksdale manhunt, U.S. Marshals say, is that the couple are likely receiving help from white supremacists.

“Somebody like Blane in prison … with both state and federal prison, would be associated with Aryan Brotherhoods, white supremacist gangs. So those are the type of individuals we think that might be assisting,” said David Gonzales, U.S. Marshal for the District of Arizona, at a Monday news conference. It was previously reported that Blane’s arm and hand tattoos included swastikas. “I don’t think there’s a question that there are people that are assisting in harboring these individuals, and it’s a felony,” he added, as reported by CNN.

Wanted for the April Tucson murder of Frank Bligh, a 72-year-old veteran and old friend of Susan’s, the Barksdales were arrested in May in Henrietta, New York. The couple escaped custody in late August while being extradited back to Pima County, by overpowering their transit drivers near Blanding, Utah after Susan faked a medical emergency. After tying up their transit drivers and putting them in the prisoner compartment of the vehicle with another prisoner, the couple drove the transit vehicle and a borrowed-from-a-friend red GMC Sierra pickup license plate No. 127XTY in tandem to St. Johns, Ariz. After abandoning the prison vehicle there, the Barksdales drove away together in the red pickup, for which a $5K reward is being offered. The couple has been on the run 15 days and counting.

Read the full story at cnn.com.