MOAB — A Moab resident led investigators Thursday to the site of remains likely belonging to a man who evaded capture after shooting and injuring a Utah State Parks ranger in 2010, police said.
The Grand County Sheriff's Office believes the body of Lance Leeroy Allerano, suspected of shooting ranger Brody Young on Nov. 19, 2010, was located near a remote area known as Tangri-La Ranch, roughly 18 miles southwest of Moab.
Caleb Shumway, who is home in Moab from college for Christmas break, was in the area near the Colorado River "for the sole purpose to search for any evidence of the location of the suspect in the shooting," the sheriff's office said in a statement. Shumway reportedly found a human bone and a bag with a handgun and ammunition magazine inside.
Lance Leeroy Arellano (Photo: KSL)
Sheriff's deputies arrived to search the terrain, which is dominated by large rocks, caves and crevasses. There, they found a narrow "cave-like area" about 6 feet long, 3 feet wide and 3 fight high, where more remains were found, according to the Grand County Sheriff's Office. Those remains and other items found in the enclosure indicate it likely is Arellano, the agency said.
The state medical examiner will analyze and attempt to identify the remains.
Young survived despite being shot in the stomach, leg and arm after stopping Allerano's vehicle at the Poison Spider Mesa trailhead, another remote area that is a several-mile walk northeast of Trangri-La Ranch. He later said he considered his survival a miracle.
The shooting triggered an intensive manhunt involving hundreds of law enforcement officials, but Allerano was never located in that search.
