Christopher Dorner continues to elude capture

BIG BEAR — The massive search for accused triple-murderer Christopher Dorner picked up again Saturday morning in Big Bear under sunny skies after more than a foot of snowfall blanketed the area overnight.
There were no reported sightings of the police- and military-trained suspect, who has now been embarking on his self-proclaimed vendetta against law enforcement for nearly a week.
Though more than 100 personnel continued combing the ski resort town at a 7,000-foot elevation with help from a sheriff’s helicopter with forward-looking infrared optics allowing the operators to see body heat underground, speculation grew among residents and officials that Dorner may no longer be in the area.
But the weather cooperated with searchers much better Saturday then Friday, as a storm that dropped 14 inches of snow on Big Bear moved out of the area.
“We’re done with the precipitation,” said Robert Balfour of the National Weather Service in San Diego. “(That will be replaced by) dry, cold frosty mornings and then probably around Monday, Tuesday looking at some wind out of the northeast. Basically, our normal winter dry pattern: more sunshine, warmer daytime temperatures, still cold at night.”
After showing up in Irvine, San Diego, Corona and Riverside, the manhunt focus of the manhunt shifted to Big Bear Thursday after Dorner’s pickup truck was found abandoned and set afire near the Bear Mountain ski resort. But there have been no confirmed sighting of him on the mountain since.
The Nissan Titan was processed and being turned over to the Irvine Police Department, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said Friday.
Irvine police released no information Saturday regarding the contents or condition of the scorched truck, or whether investigators developed any leads from it.
Numerous unsubsantiated reports of Dorner sightings were called into police throughout the Southland Thursday and Friday.
Dorner is suspected of fatally shooting an engaged couple, whose bodies were discovered Sunday near their Irvine home, according to Irvine police. The bodies of Monica Quan, 28, and her fiance Keith Lawrence, 27, in a car near their Irvine home.
On Wednesday, as police expanded their manhunt and protected potential targets listed in Dorner’s lengthy online manifesto, Dorner allegedly shot and killed a Riverside police officer in Riverside and seriously wounding another.
The fatal wounding of the police officer took place only minutes after he opened fire on two LAPD officers in Corona, authorities said.
Dorner, a former Naval reservist, cited his termination from the LAPD in early 2009 for his rage at law enforcement, and in partuclar, the LAPD. He claimed in his manifesto he was unjustly fired for reporting excessive force on the part of his training officer, and the termination ruined his life.
He further wrote that he is heavily armed with weapons invluding a .50-caliber sniper rifle and sholder-fired missiles, and prepared to use them against authorities who come after him.

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