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Official: Ark. sighting of US fugivites a false alarm

Gay says the Arkansas salon owner who was robbed says photographs of the couple don’t match

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Law enforcement officials leave the Kut & Kurl hair salon in Gentry, Ark., after the business was allegedly robbed by a man and woman early on Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010. (AP Photo/April L. Brown)

The Associated Press

GENTRY, Ark. — A sheriff’s department official says there’s “no reason to believe” an escaped Arizona inmate and his fiancee are in a small Arkansas town.

Law enforcement agencies swarmed Gentry, Ark., after a couple robbed a beauty salon there Wednesday.

But Benton County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Doug Gay says there’s no reason to think John McCluskey and Casslyn Welch committed the crime.

McCluskey and Welch have eluded authorities since he and two other inmates escaped from an Arizona prison June 30. They were last seen in Montana.

Gay says the Arkansas salon owner who was robbed says photographs of the couple don’t match the couple who were in her shop. And he says a relative of one of the fugitives no longer lives in Gentry.

But he says an extensive search is ongoing.