4-Day Manhunt Yields No Confirmed Sighting of Montana Suspect

Up in the wooded mountains of Montana, the police have scoured cabins, trailed search dogs and peered from a helicopter, but have not produced a confirmed sighting of the Army veteran who they believe killed four people at a neighborhood bar last week.

On Tuesday, as the search entered its fifth day, officials said at a news conference that they believed they were on the right track, even though the suspect, Michael P. Brown, had eluded capture since Friday, when the shooting took place in the small city of Anaconda, Mont.

Austin Knudsen, the attorney general of Montana, said Tuesday that some police officers who had joined the search would need to return to their home jurisdictions. But he maintained that the manhunt was law enforcement’s “top focus in the entire state of Montana.”

The authorities continue to operate under the assumption that the suspect is alive, armed and extremely dangerous, he said.

Mr. Brown, 45, is believed to have fled to a mountainous area west of Anaconda known as Stump Town, after walking into a bar two doors down the street from his home on Friday and fatally shooting a bartender and three patrons with a rifle.

Officials have said the suspect may have camping gear with him. They have been combing the forests and hills near Anaconda, which are dotted with cabins, lakes, hiking trails and abandoned mine shafts from the early 1900s, when the region became known for its wealth of copper and other metal ores.

Mr. Knudsen said no evidence had been found to suggest that Mr. Brown had broken into any of the mountainside cabins that the police had searched. Even so, he said, “there is certainly evidence in our search area that he’s present, and that we’re hunting in the right haystack.”

Officials declined to say exactly how many people were involved in the search. They had said over the weekend that 250 people were in the area to help.

Gov. Greg Gianforte of Montana said he had signed an executive order to release more funds for the search, including to pay for local police overtime. He sought to dispel the idea that the police were backing away from the search.

“Rest assured, our brave men and women of law enforcement aren’t giving up,” he said at the news conference. “And I ask you that you not give up on them, either.”

Among the agencies searching for Mr. Brown is the Montana National Guard, in which Mr. Brown served from 2006 to 2008. He had previously served in the Army, beginning in 2001, and had deployed to Iraq in 2004 for about a year; he left the service with the rank of sergeant.

His family has said that he returned to Montana with severe post-traumatic stress disorder after leaving the Army, and later received a diagnosis of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Relatives said he had at times been suicidal, and his condition had worsened in recent years. At times, they said, he believed he was on a secret government mission and that action movies were portraying his own experiences.

Over the years, he had frequented the Owl Bar, the casual neighborhood tavern on his street where the authorities said he shot and killed Nancy Kelley, 64, a bartender and former nurse, and three patrons: Daniel Baillie, 59; David Leach, 70; and Tony Palm, 74.

In tight-knit Anaconda, many residents knew both the victims and the suspect. Mr. Leach’s siblings said in a statement that they would miss their younger brother, and also that they held “no ill feelings” toward the suspect, saying they “understand the mental anguish caused by veterans returning from the war with PTSD and other mental issues.”

The town was locked down briefly after the shooting, but the authorities have since told residents that they could return to their regular activities. On Tuesday, people in Anaconda were mowing lawns, walking dogs and sweeping sidewalks in front of businesses.

Anaconda is about 25 miles northwest of Butte in Deer Lodge County, whose population is about 10,000.