Rick Heltebrake with his dog Suni looks over the burned-out cabin where Christopher Dorner’s remains were found after a police standoff near Big Bear, Calif. Heltebrake had been carjacked by Dorner.BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. – As soon as he heard officers were chasing the suspected cop killer in a stolen truck, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Roger Loftis was certain: His buddy Jeremiah MacKay would be there.
In 15 years with the department, “Jer” had earned about a dozen and a half awards for 10851s – the California penal code for grand theft auto. Once, while heading to a bar to celebrate another award, MacKay noticed there were no keys in the ignition of the car next to him at a traffic light, and he veered off.
He waltzed into the bar two hours later, a grin stretched across that fair, freckled face, a copy of an auto recovery record in his hand.
Last week, Loftis called his fishing, drinking and golfing buddy to see how he was doing. He knew the 35-year-old detective had been working around the clock, scouring the San Bernardino Mountains in the search for former Los Angeles Police Officer Christopher Dorner.
“If that guy’s still on this mountain,” MacKay told him, “I’m going to find him.”