Cops could’ve had McCrae’s car all along

Authorities investigating Andrew McCrae, the subject of this week’s cover story, have been looking for weeks for his car, which they say was used in the murder of Red Bluff police Officer Dave Mobilio. Now they say the car has been in a barn in southeastern Oregon since the day after the shooting.

Red Bluff Police Chief Robert Petitt said Wednesday that McCrae was involved in a single-car, rollover accident on Nov. 19, about 10 hours after Mobilio was shot. He was given assistance by local ranchers and sheriff’s deputies, and, according to reports in the Sacramento Bee, deputies in Oregon actually logged an accident report using McCrae’s real name and gave him a ride into town so he could arrange further transportation. Petitt said McCrae may have given his wrecked car to some local ranchers in exchange for their help.

McCrae’s route to Burns Junction, Ore., near where he crashed his car, likely took him on a circuitous, nearly 500-mile detour through Nevada. He apparently arranged for transportation to Seattle after his wreck, then flew from there to New Hampshire, where he was apprehended Nov. 26 after a four-hour standoff.

Now investigators are searching for a .40 caliber, semi-automatic model 229 SigSauer pistol that McCrae purchased Oct. 30 “somewhere between Seattle and Portland,” Petitt said. The bullets fired by such a gun could match those found in an autopsy performed on Mobilio.

As for what McCrae might have been doing in Red Bluff the night of the shooting, Petitt said police still don’t know. They have not received any information on where McCrae could have been traveling from or where he was going, Petitt said.