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Fugitive Frein believed spotted near his high school in Poconos

The suspected cop-killer who has sparked a wide-ranging manhunt in the Pocono Mountains may have been spotted Friday night carrying a rifle near his high school alma mater, authorities said Saturday afternoon.

Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens addresses the media during a news conference. In background is an enhanced photo of suspected killer Eric Frein who has been hiding in the deep woods in the Pocono's for over three weeks.
Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens addresses the media during a news conference. In background is an enhanced photo of suspected killer Eric Frein who has been hiding in the deep woods in the Pocono's for over three weeks.Read moreP Photo/Scranton Times & Tribune, Butch Comegys

The suspected cop-killer who has sparked a wide-ranging manhunt in the Pocono Mountains may have been spotted Friday night carrying a rifle near his high school alma mater, authorities said Saturday afternoon.

Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said a woman walking near Pocono Mountain East High School in Swiftwater spotted a man matching the description of Eric Frein about 9 p.m. She came within 15 to 20 feet of the man, Bivens said.

That and other tips - including reports of blood found on two back porches, and a possible sighting of Frein last week - have led searchers to refocus their manhunt south to the townships of Paradise and Pocono.

The man seen Friday night, who was not on the high school campus but in the area, was carrying a rifle and his face was covered in mud, preventing confirmation of his identity. Still, Bivens said, authorities were assigning the sighting a high level of credibility.

Bivens said Frein attended the high school, located in Monroe County, and also had worked several summers at nearby Camp Minsi, operated by the Boy Scouts of America.

Questioned by reporters at a news conference, Bivens said no decision had been made whether to close the school. Police would not require schools to close at this time, he said, but would make recommendations about security.

The high school is about 20 miles southwest of the state patrol barracks at Blooming Grove, where Cpl. Bryon Dickson, 38, was shot and killed the night of Sept. 12. Another trooper, Alex Douglass, 31, was wounded.

"Our search area remains fluid and is based on the information we have available to us at any given time," Bivens said.

That information includes two homeowners' reports Thursday that they had found blood on the back porches of their homes in the Cresco area, about five miles northeast of the high school. Samples of the substance were being tested, Bivens said.

No new sightings have been reported in Canadensis, previously the focus of the search area and where Frein lived.

Gov. Corbett, who joined in the Saturday news conference, promised searchers would not let up.

"Nobody's going to stop until we find this individual and he's apprehended," Corbett said.

"Everybody has one mission, and that mission is to apprehend this individual," the governor said.

That may become easier as the weather changes and the search drags on, Bivens said.

"I think we've kept a tremendous amount of pressure on him," he said.

As fall progresses and leaves come off the trees in the densely forested region, Bivens said, aerial searchers have better visibility and other technology may become more effective.

The search has already cost several million dollars, Bivens said. A more precise number was not available Saturday, he said, but it was "well under" $10 million.

Frein, 31, a self-proclaimed survivalist, is accused of shooting and killing Dickson, a married father of two, outside the state police barracks in rural Pike County. Douglass suffered a gunshot wound to his pelvic area in the ambush.

Douglass was released Thursday from Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton to an undisclosed facility in the area.

"He is in good spirits and is doing well," Bivens said Saturday.

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