GEORGETOWN LAKE — Campers around Georgetown Lake remained on high alert Sunday as the manhunt for Michael Brown, suspected of killing four people at an Anaconda bar, entered its third day.
Andrea Dondero and Garry Blanton, retired firefighters from Virginia, are on a journey to enjoy as much nature from their RVs as possible.
But when they rolled through Anaconda this weekend, their path crossed Anaconda during one of the town’s darkest periods. Friday morning, a mass shooting killed four locals and the suspect was still on the loose.
Watch: Andrea Dondero and Garry Blanton talk about the search for Michael Brown:
“We were getting some groceries and someone said something about it. I overheard and then I looked it up, and I saw it and I was like ‘Whoa!” Dondero said. “I felt horrible for them.”
The couple passed through Anaconda without a stop.
“You could tell the town it was quiet,” Blanton said.
“We're used to the city. I thought, ‘Oh, the roads will be blocked, the FBI will be there, I don’t know, a helicopter search.’ But, here it’s so low-key and there’s limited resources,” Dondero said. “You need trained people to escalate that, to just be out of their way, keep going through, and let those people mourn and search and hopefully find him before he freezes to death or starves and get him some help.”
Instead of staying in Anaconda, they stopped for the night at Georgetown Lake, near where authorities continued to search for Michael Brown on Sunday.
“I was uncomfortable to spend the night there because I knew they were still searching,” Dondero said. “You always have to have your guard up. You just don't know.”
During their careers as firefighters, the couple saw plenty of tragedy.
“I did 20 years, 50,000 calls,” Blanton said. “When you're in that world of firefighting or EMS, you see it a lot more than you think it happens. I was really sad to hear local people that suffer on both sides, it’s a real wrencher, because of a well-liked man.”
Now, their thoughts are with the communities they are passing through.
“They're scared and they're mourning. They've had a lot of loss in their community,” Dondero said.
“We did not stop. We just drove. We had a destination to go up on Highway 1,” Blanton said.
