Law enforcement officers believe they have spotted fugitive Eric Frein, dressed all in black, on more than one occasion as they pursued him in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse in the rocky, overgrown woods along the border of Pike and Monroe counties.
“I almost think some of this is a game to him,” state police Lt. Col. George Bivens said Wednesday. “Some of the sightings have occurred under circumstances where he kept himself far enough away that he knew it was very unlikely someone could get to him, but made himself visible, whether to a resident in the area or a law enforcement officer.”
Searchers have come across empty packs of Drina-brand Serbian cigarettes and soiled adult diapers as they focus most, but not all, of their resources on a 2- to 3-square-mile patch of Price and Barrett townships in northern Monroe County.
Bivens said Frein, a World War II and Cold War re-enactor, might have read that diapers allowed snipers to stay in one place for a long period.
Police have received reports of gunshots in the search area on several occasions, Bivens said, but could not say whether the shots were fired by Frein, the suspect in the Sept. 12 slaying of state police Cpl. Bryon Dickson and the wounding of Trooper Alex Douglass in Pike County. In some cases, the shots came shortly after a sighting.
“Some of those sightings appeared to us to be him probing the perimeter that we had set up,” Bivens said. “And so he was, I believe, looking to see where he could get through that perimeter, but staying as well concealed as possible while doing it.”
Summer has turned to fall during the search for Frein. Blazes of red and gold are beginning to color the treetops, but investigators are convinced they are hunting for him in the right area.
On Sunday, Bivens said searchers were “pressing” Frein, but, on Wednesday, asked whether police were any closer to catching him, Bivens sounded a cautious note, admitting the last verified law enforcement sighting came Tuesday.
“I wish I could tell you that with any certainty,” Bivens said. “I do believe we are in the right area. I believe he is in that area, and I believe we have thrown a lot of resources and a lot of talented people at this situation. I think that you make your own luck, and I hope with everything we’ve brought to bear on this matter that we are making that luck and we are going to get that break here in the very near future.”
He appealed for the public’s help once again, asking anyone who finds signs of disturbance at vacant or seasonal homes to call authorities. The tipline is 866-326-7256. Investigators also want to hear from anyone familiar with shelters or bunkers Frein may have built in the past.
State police have used warrants and locksmiths to enter vacant homes in the area, searching for signs that Frein might have entered them looking for a safe haven or sustenance. They are also looking for witnesses who might have seen Frein’s Jeep, a dark-colored 2001 Cherokee Sport, in the area before it was found abandoned Sept. 15.
Authorities kept a heavily armed perimeter in place Wednesday along Route 447 in Monroe County as troopers continued to try to flush Frein, 31, from the dense Pocono woods. It is a perimeter they have repeatedly adjusted in response to sightings by residents and officers.
But Bivens said state police are not limiting their search to that perimeter. They are investigating a variety of tips about Frein’s whereabouts, even ones that place him in another state.
Throughout the region’s sleepy villages and neighborhoods of hilly, wooded roads, residents tried to go about their business under instructions to be vigilant but to go about their lives. That’s even as the media camped out in their midst waiting for a break in the hunt, and tactical teams combed the woods near their homes.
“At times it has been terrifying,” said Peggy Chirico, who lives in Barrett Township, within the search zone. “But most of the time it’s just surreal.”
Area residents have been tying blue ribbons to utility poles in a show of support for the police.
About noon Wednesday, police helicopters returned to the area, flying wide circles as the search for Frein notched its 12th day. So far, the self-taught survivalist and skilled marksman has eluded capture despite the night-and-day presence of scores of state and federal officers, aircraft and dogs.
Chirico was convinced state police had cornered Frein on Tuesday night within the dense, rocky, ravine-pocked woods. After days of bogus rumors and false alarms, a police helicopter hovered low over Bear Town Road in Barrett Township and officers converged.
A state police officer told her afterward that thermal imaging had spotted the heat signature of what looked like someone hunkered down in the brush.
“Then the helicopter lifted and we were like, what happened?” she recalled Wednesday. “One of the troopers said it was a couple of deer.”
Bivens said thermal imaging is a powerful tool but is hampered by trees’ leaf canopies. Wildlife has also presented challenges, he said. Tactical teams have routed their share of bears from caves in the rocky area.
Again Wednesday, police activity seemed busiest near Canadensis just east of Route 447 along Bear Town Road, Snow Hill Road and Wildwood Drive. But police vehicles also were scattered outside that zone and tactical teams were seen searching areas to the north and west.
Frein is accused of killing Dickson and seriously wounding Douglass late Sept. 12 outside the Blooming Grove barracks. Frein used a rifle, police say, and targeted police but not civilians also on hand.
Dickson, 38, was hit by at least one bullet from a .308-caliber rifle and died at the scene. Douglass, 31, has undergone several surgeries at Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton. Bivens said Douglass is making steady improvement.
Investigators believe the shooting, and Frein’s subsequent escape into familiar woods near his home, were planned “extensively for months, and maybe years,” and included “surveilling the station” where the troopers were shot.
Frein was linked to the ambush when police examined evidence from his parents’ Jeep, which a man walking his dog found Sept. 15 in a pond about 3 miles north of the shooting scene. Police said they believe Frein crashed into the pond because he was driving with his lights off and didn’t notice he had reached the T-intersection with Route 6 at the north end of Route 402.
Frein lived with his parents in the Canadensis section of Barrett Township. The home is 15 miles south of where the troopers were shot and 18 miles south of where police say he abandoned the Jeep. Police say they believe he hiked that 18 miles back south within a week after the shooting.
He has been characterized as a self-styled survivalist who has taken part in battle re-enactments and has expressed a hostility toward law enforcement officers.
In his flight, Frein left behind an AK-47-style rifle, magazines and a small bag of ammo that were “partially concealed” or “hidden for possible future use,” police said. They said the rifle was found closer to the abandoned Jeep in Pike County than to his home.
Bivens said he’s confident that in the end, Frein will be brought to justice.
“In my opinion, it’s a matter of time,” he said.
