MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. -- The man suspected of killing a park ranger in Mount Rainier National Park was believed to have been found dead Monday.
Authorities had named 24-year-old Benjamin Colton Barnes a "strong person of interest" in the shooting death of Mount Rainier National Park ranger Margaret Anderson, 34, originally of Westfield, NJ, early Sunday.
Barnes was found deceased in a ditch near the scene of the shooting, according to KING-TV, which first reported the news.
"A body of a white male has been located face down in the snow with no heat signature. ID has not been confirmed yet," a spokesman for Washington State Patrol tweeted.
"The body found is believed to be that of homicide suspect Benjamin C. Barnes," spokesman Guy Gill said in a follow-up tweet. "Again that has not been confirmed."
Barnes, believed to have been an Iraq war veteran, was also a suspect in a New Year's Eve shooting that wounded four people in a Skyway, Wash., apartment.
Mother-of-two Anderson, 34, was assisting in making a traffic stop inside the park at about 11:00 a.m. local time Sunday when she was shot and killed.
Police believe Barnes came to the national park Sunday to hideout in the wilderness after the New Year's Eve shooting incident.
As he drove through the park early New Year's Day, he failed to stop for a routine checkpoint that was verifying if vehicles were equipped with snow tires given the wintery conditions, park spokesman Kevin Bacher said in a press briefing Monday.
When Barnes sped through the checkpoint, rangers alerted Anderson and she was believed to have been trying to block Barnes' vehicle when she was shot.
After Barnes shot Anderson, a 1995 graduate of Westfield High School, he left his vehicle with a rifle but remained in the area and fired upon first responders who tried to assist Anderson.
After approximately 90 minutes, medics were finally able to reach Anderson.
After the violence Sunday, the park was shut down and hikers and campers were evacuated while the gunman remained at large.
Massive search efforts with canine and aerial teams were launched, though some suspected "nature would work its course" and Barnes would not be able to survive the night if he did not have the proper gear for the deep snow, Bacher said.
Anderson had worked at the park four years and is married to a ranger who also works in the park.
"Our rangers are very much in shock. We've never had an incident like this at Mount Rainier National Park,"
Bacher told reporters, calling it "disheartening" that the violence occurred during such a routine safety check.
Anderson was remembered as "the sort of person who would drop everything and do something for you in a moment's notice," he said, adding that those who knew her considered her a "dear friend, in the park and in the community.
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