An escaped Wyoming killer and his stepson were captured Friday afternoon in Canada, ending a nearly two-week search that covered five states and two countries.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Shannon Parazoo and Alonzo Howard Durgin without incident after pulling them over outside of Merritt, British Columbia, said Cpl. Kyra Monson. Merritt is a town of 8,000, about 170 miles northeast of Vancouver.

The fugitives walked away from the Casper Re-Entry Center's work-release program on Feb. 9.

Parazoo, 43, was serving a 20- to 30-year sentence for a 1985 murder. Durgin, 28, was convicted in 1997 of aggravated robbery and aggravated assault.

A phone call from a suspicious man led to the arrest.

The man, in Logan Lake, a town 40 miles north of Merritt, contacted police after the fugitives tried to talk him into giving them a free tire, according to authorities. The fugitives' Dodge Durango apparently had a damaged tire and the fugitives didn't have enough money to buy a new one, said U.S. Deputy Marshal Rex Fullmer.

The man was suspicious and contacted police, who intercepted the Durango about 4 miles north of Merritt, Monson said.

The police determined Parazoo and Durgin were wanted in the United States and took them into custody. They were transported to Kamloops Regional Correctional Center, about 50 miles away.

Because they entered the country illegally, the fugitives will go before a Canadian immigration judge, Fullmer said.

They face federal charges in the United States for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Parazoo's wife, Rose, and two of her daughters, ages 12 and 14, were also in the Durango. Authorities believe Rose had willingly left Casper with the fugitives.

A Canadian victim services unit helped make arrangements for Rose Parazoo to get a new tire so she could continue on to the Vancouver area, where she has family, Monson said.

On Feb. 9, Parazoo failed to show up for his welding job at a Casper company. That same day, Durgin left the re-entry center on a pass to visit Rose Parazoo, but failed to return.

Rose Parazoo and two of her children also disappeared Feb. 9.

Local authorities initially searched the Wind River Indian Reservation.

Sightings of the fugitives were reported in north central Montana. On Feb. 15, a sheriff's deputy found Shannon Parazoo's van abandoned in a rural part of Phillips County, about 12 miles from the Canadian border. That same day, a gas station employee in Havre, Mont., reported seeing Rose Parazoo.

Authorities conducted an extensive air search of north central Montana on Tuesday, but failed to find a trace of the fugitives. A day later, the Marshals Service announced the search area had spread to five states: Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

On Wednesday, the fugitives were seen in Cranbrook, British Columbia, a Canadian town northwest of Whitefish, Mont., where other sightings had been reported.

Parazoo pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in April 1985 for the beating death of a 40-year-old Gillette man. He made news again in December for an escape attempt at a service station on Interstate 80 near Rawlins. Deputies were able to subdue him.

Authorities at the time speculated that another inmate had persuaded Parazoo to attempt an escape, hoping that one of the guards would kill him.

Reach Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at josh.wolfson@casperstartribune.net.