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By Karina Tsui, Michelle Watson, Holly Yan, Taylor Galgano, Sarah Dewberry, CNN
(CNN) — Despite a grueling manhunt and a growing search zone, authorities say they might be getting closer to finding an Army veteran accused of gunning down four people for no obvious reason.
Michael Paul Brown is still on the run Tuesday, four days after authorities said he opened fire at The Owl Bar – a beloved gathering spot next to the suspect’s home in Anaconda, Montana.
At least 38 local, state and federal agencies have joined in the manhunt that now spans challenging terrain in the western Montana wilderness – including the Garrity Mountain Wildlife Management Area, which is popular with campers and hikers.
While the last confirmed sighting of Brown was Friday, “there is certainly evidence in our search area that he’s present, and that we’re hunting in the right haystack,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said Tuesday.
He also warned residents in Anaconda, a community of less than 10,000 people, to stay “vigilant.”
“Absolutely, there’s concerns he might come back into the town,” Knudsen previously said. “By all indications, this is an unstable individual.”
Brown is believed to be armed and dangerous, Knudsen said Tuesday, and officials are offering up to $10,000 for information leading to his capture.
It’s still unclear why Brown allegedly killed four people at the bar around 10:30 a.m. Friday before fleeing in his underwear.
Victims include a beloved retired nurse
The victims included a bartender and three patrons, the attorney general’s office said. He identified the four victims as:
– Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59
– Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64
– David Allen Leach, 70
– Tony Wayne Palm, 74
Officials previously gave the wrong spelling for Baillie’s last name.
“I want to offer our deepest and sincere condolences to the community of Anaconda, to the family and friends of these victims,” Knudsen said. “This is just absolutely horrific.”
Kelley was an accomplished nurse who worked with cancer patients and had just started her retirement, bartender Cassandra Dutra said.
“I feel so sad for Nancy because I love Nancy and she was so very good to me from the day that I met her,” Dutra told CNN. “It just is an extremely unfair ending for somebody who spent their entire life dedicated to cancer patients and making a huge difference.”
‘He knew everybody that was in that bar’
It’s unclear whether Brown was targeting any of the victims or if he shot them randomly. But the suspect was a regular at The Owl Bar and likely knew the victims, owner David Gwerder told The Associated Press.
“He knew everybody that was in that bar. I guarantee you that,” Gwerder told the AP. “He didn’t have any running dispute with any of them. I just think he snapped.”
CNN has reached out to Gwerder for comment.
One of Brown’s relatives, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for their privacy, told CNN they worked at the bar for years and knew all four people who were killed. Now, they said they fear the hunt for Brown could end in his death.
“They were my customers,” the relative said of the victims. “They were my friends. I have been scared s**tless waiting for him to be found because I don’t want to have to bury (him),” they said.
“I need everybody to know that our family is devastated,” they added. “We can’t believe that this has happened.”
The suspect wasn’t the same after serving in the military, niece says
The suspect lived next door to the bar and would come in frequently, Dutra said. But “he wasn’t a part of the camaraderie” with other customers, the bartender said.
Brown served in the US Army from January 2001 to May 2005 and was part of an armored vehicle crew, Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Ruth Castro told CNN. He was deployed to Iraq from February 2004 to March 2005.
Brown later joined the Montana National Guard from April 2006 to March 2009 and left military service as a sergeant, Castro said.
The suspect’s niece, Clare Boyle, said her uncle struggled with mental health in the Army and wasn’t the same after his service.
Brown’s condition worsened after his parents died, Boyle told CNN. She described him as “very sick” but also recalled happy moments with him, such as learning to ride a bike and fishing together.
Brown’s family sought help from the Veterans Affairs Department and the Montana State Hospital, according to Boyle, but she said both institutions “turned us away.” CNN has sought comment from Veterans Affairs and the state hospital.
The Army declined to release information about Brown’s mental health history, citing policy and privacy constraints.
Brown’s niece said some patrons of The Owl Bar were aware of his mental illness and what she described as “his delusions.” Some would mock and bully Brown at times, she said, though she did not identify specific people. She said she was not aware of a specific conflict that could have motivated the shooting. Authorities have said it is unclear whether Brown targeted specific victims.
Boyle said she was devastated for the victims’ loved ones, noting five families were “destroyed” on Friday.
“There are no excuses or words of defense for this awful tragedy,” she said.
‘There’s a thousand places to hide’
Shortly after the killings, Brown was seen on surveillance video barefoot and wearing only underwear. But he may have collected new clothes from a stolen truck, authorities said.
Investigators found a white Ford F-150 truck that Brown was driving – but the suspect wasn’t inside, Montana Division of Criminal Investigation Administrator Lee Johnson said.
“It was a stolen vehicle, but there was camping equipment in it,” Knudsen said. “We believe there was some clothing in it.”
Authorities locked down the Barker Lake area of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest over the weekend as local, state and federal agencies searched by land and air, the Montana Department of Justice said.
On Tuesday, Johnson declined to specify the latest scope of the search area.
“The type of terrain, it’s very challenging, so we have expanded our perimeters to look in different areas,” he said.
So far, there’s been no evidence that Brown has broken into cabins in the popular area, the attorney general said.
“There’s a number of cabins up there. They’ve all been swept and checked,” Knudsen said.
Anaconda resident Dan Haffey, who was a fire foreman for the Montana Division of Forestry, knows the area well. He told CNN his team would cut trails into Garrity Mountain for hikers.
“There’s a thousand places to hide on that mountain,” Haffey said.
“I’ve been on forest fires, and in that drainage up there, and (there are) 5,000 acres,” Haffey said. “That mountain is gigantic.”
The dozens of agencies searching for Brown include the FBI, Anaconda Deer Lodge County Police, the Granite County Sheriff’s Office, and the Denver office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“This manhunt has involved individuals from 38 local, state and federal agencies, and coordination of hundreds from all of those agencies has been a very difficult task,” Anaconda Deer Lodge County Attorney Morgan Smith said Tuesday.
“They are responding to every call, to every tip, and they are tirelessly searching the area where the suspect is believed to be.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
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CNN’s Taylor Romine, Josh Campbell, Taylor Galgano, Danya Gainor and Elizabeth Wolfe contributed to this report.
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