Golden Sun eXtra Your Local News Source, Mohave County, AZ

The mother of one of the inmates who escaped from an Arizona prison on July 30 has been arrested and charged with aiding the escape, officials said Saturday.

A deputy U.S. Marshal said Claudia Washburn, 68, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to facilitate escape and hindering prosecution. Washburn is the mother of John McCluskey, one of two inmates still at large after escaping a Golden Valley prison on July 30. Authorities describe the pair as armed and dangerous.

Washburn allegedly provided "financial and other aid" to her son and the second escapee and to a woman who was helping them, the Marshal said. Washburn was arrested at Jakes Corner, Arizona.

A nationwide manhunt continues for McCluskey, 45, who was serving 15 years for attempted second-degree murder and other charges, and for Tracy Province, 42, who was serving a life sentence for murder and armed robbery. The Marshal said the two are believed to have left Arizona but are still in the United States.

Authorities believe McCluskey's fiancee and cousin, Casslyn Welch, 44, of Mesa, helped the inmates escape by throwing wire cutters over the prison fence.

Renwick was captured Sunday in Colorado after a shootout with authorities.

After the break, the inmates and the accomplice abducted two truck drivers at gunpoint on Interstate 40 outside of Kingman and hijacked their 18-wheeler, according to the Mohave County Sheriff's Office. The truck drivers and the rig were released five hours later in Flagstaff, about 135 miles to the east.

The fugitives were later believed to be driving a 2002 silver Volkswagen Jetta purchased last Saturday in Phoenix. They were later spotted on a security camera in a bank inside a grocery store in Goodyear, Arizona, according a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Corrections.

The fugitives have been linked to the investigation of a couple's killing in New Mexico.

New Mexico State Police spokesman said Saturday that Province, McCluskey and Welch were linked through forensics but declined to provide specifics, saying, "we don't know how involved they are."

The badly burned skeletal remains of Linda and Gary Haas of Oklahoma were found in a charred camper on Wednesday in eastern New Mexico.

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