CNN
–
A couple wanted in connection with a Las Vegas murder last week were found dead after leading police on a 35-mile chase and fled into the Arizona desert on Friday, according to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office.
Hunter McGuire, 26, and his girlfriend, Samantha Branek, 32, were found by a SWAT team from the Lake Havasu City Police Department lying next to each other, each with a single gunshot wound to their side. head, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
McGuire had a shotgun in his chest and his wound is believed to have been self-inflicted, but the Mohave County coroner’s office will investigate Branek’s cause of death, the sheriff’s office said.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department had issued murder warrants for the couple on October 17, according to the sheriff’s office.
LVMPD investigators had identified McGuire as their suspect and Branek was seen on video the same day the evidence was committed to the murder, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Investigators believed McGuire was in hiding in Las Vegas because he was wanted for a double murder in Kingman, Arizona, which occurred on June 28, according to the sheriff’s office.
On October 19, while investigating this murder, authorities came across a man who had been shot in the head and subsequently also considered McGuire a suspect in this murder.
Branek’s vehicle was spotted on Alamo Road on Friday. from Interstate 40 to Yucca, Arizona, the sheriff’s office said. When a Mohave County deputy sheriff went behind Branek’s vehicle in a tagged police car, he started moving at over 80mph and was chased by the deputy for about 35 miles, according to the sheriff’s office. .
Branek’s vehicle slipped off the road and three people – McGuire, Branek and another woman – stumbled upon a remote desert area covered with trees and scrub, the sheriff’s office said.
An Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter tracked them down, communicated their location to local law enforcement and informed them that McGuire was carrying a rifle, according to the sheriff’s office.
McGuire and Branek tried to hide under a large tree while the other woman hid elsewhere, the sheriff’s office said, adding that she later surrendered to law enforcement without incident. She was subsequently charged with obstructing law enforcement, with other charges pending.
After “about four hours of unanswered negotiation and aerial surveillance” by McGuire and Branek, their bodies were found by the SWAT team, according to the Sheriff’s Office statement.
McGuire remains a suspect in other ongoing murder investigations, police said.
