A couple wanted in connection to a murder case in Las Vegas have been found dead, police say
By Chris Boyette, CNN
A couple wanted in connection with a murder in Las Vegas last week were found dead after leading police on a 35-mile car chase and escaping into the Arizona desert Friday, according to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office.
Hunter McGuire, 26, and his girlfriend, Samantha Branek, 32, were found by a Lake Havasu City Police Department SWAT team lying beside each other, each with a single gunshot wound to the head, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
McGuire had a rifle laying on his chest and his wound is believed to be self-inflicted, but the Mohave County Medical Examiner’s Office will investigate Branek’s cause of death, the sheriff’s office said.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department had issued arrest warrants for murder against the couple over a killing on October 17, according to the sheriff’s office.
LVMPD detectives had identified McGuire as their suspect and Branek was seen on video pawning evidence of the murder the same day, the sheriff’s office statement said.
Investigators believed McGuire had been hiding in Las Vegas because he was wanted for a double murder in Kingman, Arizona, that occurred on June 28, according to the sheriff’s office.
On October 19, while investigating that murder, authorities came upon a man who had been shot in the head and subsequently considered McGuire a suspect in that murder too.
On Friday, Branek’s vehicle was seen traveling on Alamo Rd. from Interstate 40 in Yucca, Arizona, the sheriff’s office said. When a Mohave County Sheriff’s deputy in a marked patrol car got behind Branek’s vehicle, it began going over 80 mph and was pursued by the deputy for approximately 35 miles, according to the sheriff’s office.
Branek’s vehicle slid off the road and three people — McGuire and Branek and another woman — ran out into a remote desert area with trees and brush, the sheriff’s office said.
An Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter tracked them, relaying their location to law enforcement on the ground and informing them McGuire was carrying a rifle, according to the sheriff’s office.
McGuire and Branek attempted to conceal themselves under a large tree while the other woman hid in a separate location, the sheriff’s office said, adding she later surrendered to law enforcement without incident. She was subsequently charged with hindering prosecution with additional charges pending.
After “approximately four hours of negotiations and air surveillance with no response” from McGuire and Branek, their bodies were found by the SWAT team, according to the sheriff’s office statement.
McGuire remains a suspect in additional ongoing murder investigations, police said.
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