Police find food they think was left by Pa. ambush suspect

Associated Press

Law-enforcement officials tracking the survivalist charged with ambushing a rural Pennsylvania State Police barracks said Friday they have found caches of food and other supplies and believe he’ll likely start breaking into cabins or searching through trash bins to sustain himself.

Police found a campsite recently used by 31-year-old Eric Frein and found tuna fish, ramen noodles and other food and clothing as well as 90 rounds from a rifle of the type used in the deadly Sept. 12 ambush, Lt. Col. George Bivens said. Police previously said they found two pipe bombs belonging to Frein at the campsite.

“Because we continue to push Frein and to seize the items he needs to survive, we believe he will be forced to search for food and shelters in other locations,” said Bivens, who gave an update on the manhunt three weeks after the shooting that killed Cpl. Bryon Dickson and seriously wounded Trooper Alex Douglass.

Hundreds of law-enforcement officials have been searching for Frein in the woods around his parents’ home in Canadensis. Police have spoken with Frein’s family about making a public appeal for his surrender, but no decision has been made, Bivens said.

Meanwhile, DNA testing on soiled diapers thought to have been left by Frein was inconclusive, the FBI said Friday.

The diapers had been exposed to the elements, so “you can’t say one way or the other” whether Frein wore them, Edward Hanko, special agent in charge of the Philadelphia FBI office, said in a phone interview.

State police announced last week that they had discovered diapers in the northeastern Pennsylvania woods where Frein is believed to be hiding and that he might have worn them so he could remain stationary for long periods of time.