THE BORDER REPORT

A 41-year-old woman involved with the Minuteman vigilante groups that hunt illegal migrants through the Arizona desert has been arrested for pulling a home invasion and murdering a father and his nine year old daughter last month.

Then it gets ugly and weird. According to the Pima County Sheriff's Office, Shawna Forde, 43, was arrested south of Sierra Vista, Ariz. today. Her accomplices, Albert Gaxiola and Jason Eugene Bush, were also arrested. Bush was picked up in Kingman on June 11 and Gaxiola in Tucson. The father and daughter, Raul and Brisenia Flores, were murdered May 30.

The Pima County Sheriff's Office says Forde and her two accomplices pretended to be police and entered the home. A woman in the home is recovering from her injuries.

Forde's past has been suspect. According to the Washington newspaper, The Daily Herald, Forde's ex-husband was shot multiple times this past December inside his home but survived. A few days later, Forde reported she had been raped. She called the newspaper to report the rape happened because of her work with the Minuteman vigilantes and published photos of what may or may not have been injuries on her Web site. A few days after that, Forde was found in an alley with a gunshot wound to her arm.

Last night, federal agents with the Bureau of Land Management reported being shot at by four people with rifles while they patrolled on ATVs in the Arivaca area. Nobody's saying Forde and her crew were involved. Maybe they weren't. But the area, the Altar Valley, is a favorite locale for vigilantes, drug mules and federal agents. Occasionally, two, maybe more, clash.

On the Web site of her group, Minuteman American Defense, Forde tells her fans that the United Nations are helping illegal immigrants cross into the U.S. (Photo courtesy, Diario de Nogales.)

On her blog, she writes: "I am at the bar listening and talking with some of the women as they laugh and say I'm a loco whetta. No other wetta's dare to come in because the chola's that hang in there will kick their asses. "Big girls" they continue to tell me how funny they think it is when they are out in public white women will stay clear of them out of fear. They love this power to them we appear weak and timid and they enjoy bulling their way around and that in the public schools their kids run it and threaten the other kids with violence ...

"... See there is a new white girl in town this one is not afraid and will not tolerate this not while I'm on post. We can all live in fear or we stand strong and tall and look the criminals in the eye and say "No more" that is what I choose to do I did not get involved in this movement to be a wall flower and as most of you know me you know I'm a hands on kind of gal.

We have to do this so if you have area's that are known to be traffic area's and full of illegal's make a stand start with local law enforcement, take pictures and build a case file. It is better to have as much Intel when you go to the officials. It is taken more seriously. I will also keep you posted on if I do decide to enlist with the Army. God Bless America, Shawna Forde

Jim Gilchrist, one of the two founders of the Minuteman groups, has distanced himself as far as he possibly could from Forde, saying on his Web site that he has no affiliation. In an April 2009 radio interview hosted on her site, Forde said she was running border ops for Gilchrist ...

His former partner, fellow co-founder Chris Simcox, is also distancing himself from Forde. Simcox is running for Senate in Arizona.