PORTLAND, Ore. - But for their wrong turn in the mountains of Southern Oregon, the case of Elbert and Becky Higginbotham might well have stayed in an in-basket of the busy and cash-strapped office of the sheriff of Navajo County, Ariz.

Eleven months ago, they'd been caught with a small amount of methamphetamine and a shotgun, deputies said, but they agreed to cooperate with investigators.

Then they disappeared. They turned up last Tuesday, momentary national celebrities as they were rescued with four relatives from a snowbound recreational vehicle in Oregon's Coast Range. Lost and stuck in the snow, the six had been missing for more than two weeks.

Now Elbert and Becky Higginbotham have vanished again.

With warrants out for their arrest, the Higginbothams were reported Monday by relatives to be heading back to Navajo County on their own, in the same motor home that had been retrieved from the mountains.

If true, that meant they may be rendering moot a question that had vexed Arizona officials - whether it was worth it to spend a few thousand dollars to get back a couple of suspects in a case that would result in "probably probation, to be honest with you," said Navajo County Sheriff Gary Butler.

Butler said Monday that last April his deputies caught the couple, house-sitting for someone else, with a small amount of methamphetamine and gained their promise to help in an investigation.

"But when we went back to talk to them, they were gone," Butler said.

He said deputies didn't know the whereabouts of the couple until last week.

That was when one of his drug investigators heard the snowbound story and remembered a long-standing complaint that the department had filed with the county prosecutor. It had finally resulted in charges against the Higginbothams, coincidentally, a few weeks earlier, Butler said.

Such a delay is not unusual, he said. A prosecutor concentrates on cases in which a suspect is in custody, Butler said, because those people are entitled to speedy trials. A case involving somebody who hasn't been detained is a lower priority, he said.

Elbert Higginbothams' mother, Mary, has said Elbert, 54, and Becky, 44, set out from Arizona in February. They traveled to Ashland, home of Becky Higginbotham's son, Peter Stivers, his wife and their two children.

The six set out for the Oregon Coast in Higginbotham's motor home on March 4, were reported missing, and were rescued last Tuesday, making the national news.

A day later, Butler's department issued a warrant for the arrest of the Higginbothams. Even then it wasn't certain his department would pay to get the Higginbothams returned to Arizona, he said.

Over the weekend, however, Butler talked with his counterpart in Jackson County, Ore. The two sheriffs worked out a travel plan for the Higginbothams that would allow the Arizona authorities to save some money by picking them up in Utah, so Butler decided to make an effort to take action in a high-profile case.

In Southern Oregon, Sheriff Mike Winters of Jackson County had money on his mind, as well. He said he didn't want "meth people" in the county, draining public money for law enforcement and social services.

On a day when he was investigating an overnight rape, kidnapping and robbery, he said, he was glad he had negotiated a deal with Butler.

"If that wouldn't have worked out, I would have driven them to Arizona myself," he said.