Colton Harris-Moore charged with thefts in Nebraska

Published 6:52 am Wednesday, June 30, 2010

MADISON, Neb. — Police in Oregon and the Midwest now have some proof that Colton Harris-Moore is on a cross-country road trip, traveling thousands of miles in a succession of stolen vehicles.

Court papers filed Friday in Madison County, Neb., describe the evidence that links Harris-Moore to a string of car thefts, burglaries and other crimes stretching from Washington into Oregon and east through Idaho, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.

For the first time, the court papers confirm an FBI investigation into the teen fugitive and accuse him of piloting stolen planes.

Police in Oregon on Tuesday also announced that fingerprints recovered from a boat stolen on June 1 match Harris-Moore.

In addition to charges already filed in Washington state, Harris-Moore, 19, now is wanted on a $100,000 arrest warrant in Nebraska where he’s charged with burglary and theft. He escaped from a Seattle-area group home in April 2008 and has been on the run since, allegedly committing dozens of crimes.

Police in Norfolk, Neb., recovered surveillance video footage from a June 19 break in at the airport there, records show. The grainy video was shared with the FBI and Island County sheriff’s detectives who confirmed with up to 90 percent confidence that the suspect in the images is Harris-Moore.

The burglary suspect disabled the surveillance equipment but a technician was able to recover images recorded prior to the tampering. Norfolk Police Division Capt. Steve Hecker said Tuesday the surveillance images are evidence and will not be released.

Police also are analyzing fingerprints, Hecker said.

Nebraska officials within hours of the reported airport burglary recovered a Toyota Sequoia stolen from Yankton, S.D., about 60 miles away.

Yankton police described the frightening events of June 18 when a family returned to their vacation home around 3 a.m. to find a nude man in the home.

The homeowner tried to catch the suspect, but the suspect pointed a laser beam at the man and told him to leave, police said. The homeowner feared the suspect was armed.

When police in Yankton sent a broadcast out about the burglaries, they heard back from the FBI and police in Washington and Oregon. The crimes fit Harris-Moore’s method of operation, police said.

The five-page affidavit links investigations in South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Washington to Harris-Moore.

This apparent crime spree began with a note Harris-Moore left at a veterinary clinic in southwest Washington at the end of May. On June 1, a boat was stolen from Ilwaco near the mouth of the Columbia River.

The boat was recovered tied up to a commercial pier in Warrenton, Ore., near Astoria, Police Chief Matthew Workman said Tuesday. An analysis of fingerprints found on the boat link the crime to Haris-Moore, he said.

The spree of illegal activities apparently continued at an airport near Astoria, where somebody broke in and stole a car. That pattern of airport burglaries and vehicle thefts has been repeated nearly a dozen times along a trail that extends more than 2,000 miles.

During the June 19 airport burglary in Nebraska, the suspect tried to steal an airplane but was unable to open the doors, police said. Detectives believe the burglar used a broom handle in an attempt to force open a door. Fingerprints were taken from the broom.

“Harris-Moore has hot-wired and flown airplanes in the past. Harris-Moore flies the planes and then crash lands them,” according to the police affidavit.

Officials in Washington have suggested that Harris-Moore has stolen planes, but he has not been charged with the thefts. The affidavit filed Friday in Nebraska is the first time law officers have gone on the record linking the teenager to airplane thefts. Harris-Moore has no formal flight training. He is believed to have studied flying on the Internet.

Harris-Moore is suspected of stealing two planes from the San Juan Islands, a Cessna from northern Idaho and a small plane from Anacortes.

An FBI agent in Washington confirmed to police in Nebraska that there are “some federal cases involving Colton Harris-Moore,” the court papers said. FBI Special Agent Fred Gutt in Seattle would not discuss the nature of the cases, but made clear that federal agents may simply be providing investigative assistance to local police.

“It’s not a big matter,” Gutt said. “If he becomes violent, that’s different.”

Harris-Moore’s trail appears to have gone cold Thursday in Dallas City, Ill., where police recovered a stolen car.

There have been no suspicious reports involving stolen cars, planes or boats, said Fred Kientzle, a chief deputy with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois.

“We haven’t seen or heard of anything,” he said Tuesday.

Still, police in the area are on high alert.

Early Sunday, deputies rushed to an Illinois bar after a patron twice called 911 to report that an armed Harris-Moore was there, Kientzle said. When deputies arrived, they quickly determined the 6-foot, 5-inch Harris-Moore was not there and arrested the man who made the false report.

Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437; jholtz@heraldnet.com.