Nevadan killed in Honduras

Friday, Feb. 20, 1998 | 9:26 a.m.

George Menes Wilson, who owned several properties here and worked as a local surveyor, was gunned down in a land dispute, the Lahontan Valley News/Fallon Eagle Standard reported.

Honduran police confirmed that Wilson died in a Feb. 9 shooting attack by three men in the town of Limones, about 145 miles east of the Tegucigalpa, the capital city.

Limones is in Olancho province, on the border with Nicaragua.

The province is known as the "Wild West" of Honduras because many people there carry guns. Settling disputes with gunslinging is not uncommon.

Police have not offered any theories about motives in the attack. The three gunmen shot Wilson, then fled. He has hit by three bullets.

But his longtime friend and companion, Linda Burchard of Fallon, told the newspaper that Wilson was ambushed and shot as he was building a road for a mining project that was backed by a weathly landowner in the Central American country.

She said the landowner was at odds with others who objected to tearing out forests for the project.

Wilson was believed to be 68. His body was claimed at a Tegucigalpa morgue by U.S. Embassy staff, who have not commented on the case.

Before his death, Wilson lived on his 40-acre ranch in Shurz when he was not traveling.