Delia D'Ambra

Shortly after he was located, investigators began the process of retrieving his body.

Reporting by the Associated Press and Idaho Statesmen stated that once he was removed from the river, his body was kept at the crime scene overnight Wednesday until resources could arrive to take it for an autopsy.

But even with the results of that examination pending, officials told the press that it was clear Conley had been shot twice in the head and two times in the chest at point-blank range.

While processing the crime scene, detectives had discovered other things of interest too, including some traces of blood on the ground in various places.

Those spots appeared to have been covered by vegetation debris that someone had tried to burn, but not all of the blood had been incinerated.

So they took samples of it.

They also collected firearm evidence and snapped photos of several shoe prints on the ground.

They discovered spent shell casings for both .357 and .22 caliber ammunition and were able to recover some of the victim's belongings that Claude and Jim had burned in the two fire pits.

The blood samples and other trace evidence were quickly sent to the Idaho State Crime Lab for analysis, but the results weren't immediately available.

So in the meantime, investigators asked Jim to walk them through everything he remembered from the day of the murders.

They asked him to basically reenact step-by-step where Claude had been, where he had been, and where the game wardens had been when the crime went down.

Obviously though, Jim was only able to provide them with limited information since there were some aspects of the shooting he had not personally witnessed and it had all happened so fast.

He also wasn't much help when it came to locating Bill Pogue's remains.

If you remember, according to Jim and the Nielsens, Claude had disposed of Bill by himself, with no witnesses around.

So there was no one to help authorities narrow in on a more specific search area.

Investigators decided the best place to start was within a 30-square-mile radius of Winnemucca, Nevada, which is where Claude had last been seen.

With such a broad search area to cover, the task of finding Bill became that much more difficult for investigators.

They organized a formal search party, which included Conley's older brother, Michael, and members of law enforcement.

From what I read in the source material, it seemed like everyone who was involved wanted to see the fallen game warden's body returned to his family and laid to rest properly.

About 15 years before this, Bill had joined the Fish and Game Department after serving as the sheriff of Winnemucca.