“Whether he got out sometime in the night, I don’t know,” Moab Police Chief Mike Navarre said late last Wednesday. “I seriously doubt he’s still in there.”
Police believe Lankford, a former Moab resident who was released in April from prison where he served time for aggravated assault, is armed with a handgun, Navarre said Tuesday. Lankford was convicted several years ago of stabbing a man in Moab. After his release this spring, he failed to appear for required meetings with his parole officer, prompting Department of Corrections officials to issue an arrest warrant.
Lankford, 38, abandoned his vehicle in a muddy alfalfa field and fled on foot into a thicket of brush near the Colorado River last Tuesday afternoon after a sheriff’s deputy spotted him and attempted an arrest.
More than 30 officers from the Moab Police Department and the Grand County Sheriff’s Office patrolled the perimeter of the area throughout the night and into Wednesday. Authorities also searched the area from the air using a U.S. Bureau of Land Management helicopter. A prison SWAT team scoured the mosquito and gnat infested thicket until about 3 a.m. Wednesday morning using night vision equipment and search dogs. They resumed the search at daybreak.
But by noon, police had found no clues to Lankford’s whereabouts and authorities decided to halt the effort, Navarre said.
“All the agencies really worked well together. The officers did an excellent job,” Navarre said. “We were out there all night long. (Lankford) remains on the active warrant list. Somebody will catch him.”