Two suspected car thieves who escaped after rolling their vehicle after a high-speed chase were trapped when they wandered onto a mountain ledge and couldn’t get down Saturday.
A Mesa County search-and-rescue crew plucked the unidentified suspects off a ledge less than a mile from Interstate 70 late Saturday, said Mesa County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Heather Benjamin.
“There was no access up or down that ledge,” she said. “They climbed up through a canyon and wandered all over in the backcountry then made their way back to the Interstate, but they ended up on a rim where there was no way out.”
Authorities located the two after one of the suspects, a 15-year-old girl, called a relative on her cellphone.
“The relative was relaying information to us. She said she had a head injury,” Benjamin said.
Authorities aren’t releasing the pair’s identities pending an investigation.
Glenwood Springs police began to pursue the two when they spotted what they believed to be a stolen vehicle.
When the car crossed into Mesa County, Glenwood police called off the pursuit.
The car rolled over on I-70, and witnesses spotted the two leaving on foot for the nearby hills.
The two suspects were gone when Garfield County deputies reached the accident.
Mesa County deputies launched a manhunt outside the town of DeBeque. The search went on for about two hours in spite of heavy snow and blizzard conditions. It was called off around 3 p.m. due to concerns about the weather, Benjamin said.
About 5 p.m., the girl’s relative began receiving calls and reported the conversations to police.
Searchers contacted the couple on the ledge at about 7 p.m. but were unable to reach them for several hours.
Tom McGhee: (303)954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
