In the ominous photograph, Aaron Bassler’s pants appear ripped and soiled. With his left hand, he is reaching through a window; in his right hand is a black semiautomatic assault rifle.
The image, recently snapped by a surveillance camera at a cabin that the police believe was burglarized, is the latest sighting of Mr. Bassler, 35, a local man wanted in connection with two murders here.
For the last month, Mr. Bassler, whom relatives describe as mentally ill, has eluded the police by nimbly traversing a large swath of forest land in Mendocino County, an isolated area three hours north of San Francisco. It is the most intensive manhunt ever undertaken by the sheriff’s office, said Sheriff Tom Allman.
“Mr. Bassler has lived in this area for close to 30 years,” said Sheriff Allman, who presented the photograph at a news conference at the Fort Bragg Police Department on Monday. “We are in his territory. He knows the trails. He knows the bushes. He knows the hiding spots.”
The manhunt, which has sent aerial surveillance, K-9 units and anywhere from 30 to 60 local, state and federal law enforcement officers daily into a 400-square-mile area that is marked by dense brush, towering redwoods and the occasional cabin, has shaken this coastal city of 7,000.
“The victims are gone, but the fact that he’s still at large is driving people crazy,” said Jim Muto, 64, the owner of V’Canto, a restaurant in Fort Bragg. “They’re very uneasy about it.”
'People are anxious'
Officers in camouflage regalia are often seen around Fort Bragg, wanted posters hang in gas stations and convenience stores, hikers and hunters have been advised to stay out of the forest, and the city’s middle school was locked down after the police received a tip that Mr. Bassler had been seen in the area (he was not found).
“People are anxious,” said Dan Gjerde, a City Council member. “They’re waiting for resolution.”
The manhunt began after Jere Melo, a prominent council member and a former two-term mayor, was shot and killed around 10 a.m. on Aug. 27.
That Saturday morning, Mr. Melo, 69, who had also worked as a forester since the 1960s, was walking in the deep woods as he often did for his job, said his son, Greg Melo: after being contacted by a property owner who believed someone was growing marijuana nearby on private timberland, Mr. Melo went to check on it.
Once he had GPS coordinates for the garden, he planned on sending them to law enforcement, his son said.
He did not find any marijuana. But Mr. Melo, who was accompanied by a friend, soon encountered Mr. Bassler, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Gregory Van Patten.
Mr. Bassler darted from the brush, shouted at the men, then opened fire, Sergeant Van Patten said. Mr. Melo was killed by multiple shots from a high-powered rifle.
“He didn’t have a chance. He probably died before he hit the ground,” Sergeant Van Patten said, adding that it was unclear why Mr. Bassler had attacked the men.
The friend, who knew Mr. Bassler and has not been identified because of safety concerns, escaped after waving down a service vehicle for a train that ferries tourists through the forest, said Mr. Melo’s son, who spoke with the friend.
Shortly after, the police connected Mr. Bassler to a second killing: on Aug. 11, Matthew Coleman, 45, also a forester, was found dead outside his car on a rural property more than a dozen miles north of Fort Bragg.
Mr. Coleman, who was working in the area, was killed by multiple gunshots. The authorities found Mr. Bassler’s DNA at the crime scene.
After Mr. Melo was shot, Mr. Bassler disappeared into the rugged forest land, where, said his father, James Bassler, he had lived for several months.
Officers have found possible evidence of Aaron Bassler’s movements — burglarized cabins, ammunition caches and burnt-out campfires. The authorities believe that a poppy garden that was discovered near where Mr. Melo was killed belonged to Mr. Bassler.
The only other confirmed sighting of Mr. Bassler, besides the photograph, was on Sept. 4, when the police spotted him near his mother’s home in Fort Bragg, Sergeant Van Patten said. Though chased by a police dog, Mr. Bassler escaped into thick brush.
'He just sort of flat-lined'
Last month’s murders came after more than a decade of erratic and strange behavior by Mr. Bassler, his father said.
Though Aaron Bassler seemed normal growing up — he played baseball and had a circle of friends — by the mid-1990s he had changed, James Bassler said.
“He didn’t have any empathy,” his father said. “He just sort of flat-lined.”
He destroyed a vegetable garden while trying to kill gophers, his father said. He drew aliens on the wall. He stole sugar and liquor from his father. Distrustful of his gas stove, he began cooking outside.
Though James Bassler does not believe his son has ever gotten a diagnosis or been medicated — due to privacy laws, he has not been able to find out — he believes such behavior indicates mental illness.
A string of arrests dating to the mid-1990s — many of them for minor, nonviolent crimes, his father said — includes one bizarre incident in February 2009: Mr. Bassler was arrested after throwing a bag containing a black jumpsuit with red stars over a wall of the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, according to a complaint filed in Federal District Court there.
At the news conference, Mr. Allman said revelations that Mr. Bassler could be mentally ill had not changed law enforcement’s approach to the manhunt.
“The tactics are: safely apprehend a man in the woods with a rifle,” he said.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: September 28, 2011
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed a statement characterizing Aaron Bassler's earlier arrests. His father, not Sgt. Gregory Van Patten of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, said many of the arrests were for minor, nonviolent crimes.
This article, first appeared in The New York Times.
