Once again, Colton Harris-Moore eludes capture

Published 4:43 pm Thursday, March 18, 2010

EASTSOUND, Orcas Island — Colton Harris-Moore, the elusive fugitive from Camano Island, has evaded capture today despite an effort by nearly three dozen heavily armed police who scoured the woods of Orcas Island.

Police would not say what prompted the latest action, an intensive multi-agency manhunt, which kicked off around 1:15 a.m.

Officials believe Harris-Moore has been hiding out on Orcas since Feb. 10 when a small stolen plane landed in the mud here.

As the day progressed without an arrest, hope of ending the 6-foot-5 teen’s nearly two years on the lam diminished, San Juan County Sheriff Bill Cumming said.

The search was scaled back by 3 p.m., he said.

“The assets involved in this search will remain close at hand and will be redeployed if the situation warrants,” the sheriff said.

Thursday’s all-out push focused on the northwest corner of Turtleback Mountain, the iconic ridgeline that defines the western half of Orcas Island.

Harris-Moore was “believed to be in a very isolated and very rugged area on the west side of the island where only a few homes are located,” Cumming said.

A Snohomish County sheriff’s police-dog team and two five-man teams of mantrackers from the Marysville Police Department joined FBI agents and other law enforcement agencies under the direction of the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office. A U.S. Customs helicopter searched the area from above, including the mostly uninhabited western bluffs.

“We’re out there and we’re active,” Marysville Police Chief Rick Smith said of his team.

Police in camouflage uniforms could be seen going door-to-door to check homes. Other police were seen coming and going from a narrow road with access to what were described as remote vacation properties.

The area is not far from where police suspect Harris-Moore, who turns 19 on Monday, was last believed to be operating.

He’s suspected in an attempted burglary at a hardware store in the town of Eastsound on Feb. 28.

Earlier in the month, on the evening of Feb. 10, a plane was stolen from Anacortes and landed off the runway at the Orcas Island airport, about a mile outside of town. Hours later someone broke into an organic grocery store stealing food and vandalizing the security system.

The burglar drew several large footprints with chalk on the store’s floor, an apparent reference to the “Barefoot Burglar,” the name some media have used to describe Harris-Moore. He’s believed to sometimes commit crimes and run barefoot from the scene, although police say he usually wears shoes.

The crimes in Eastsound led officials to openly speculate about Harris-Moore’s possible involvement.

Harris-Moore has been on the run since April 2008 when he escaped a halfway house in Renton where he was serving a 3-year sentence for burglaries on Camano Island. Since then, he’s suspected of stealing four private planes, two boats and luxury cars, and breaking into homes and businesses in Washington, Idaho and British Columbia.

If he’s responsible for all of the crimes he’s been connected to, the total value of property involved exceeds $1.5 million.

The teen has a following on the Internet and has drawn considerable media attention. The men’s magazine “Maxim,” has a feature story planned in its April issue.

Thursday’s efforts aren’t the first time police from Snohomish County have been involved in the effort to apprehend the teen.

In October, a plane taken from a small airport in northern Idaho crashed in a clear cut near Granite Falls.

The Snohomish County Auto Theft Task Force investigated the theft. The group’s commander, Lt. Brent Speyer, has refused to publicly connect that theft to Harris-Moore. Others in law enforcement have speculated the Camano teen was responsible.

A massive police search near Granite Falls was triggered days later when somebody shot at a Snohomish County deputy who was in the woods investigating a burglary.

Harris-Moore’s trail of crime started when he was 12 and includes felony convictions in Snohomish and Island counties. He’s now suspected of committing crimes in at least five Washington counties, British Columbia and Idaho.

Cumming refused to say how long he planned to keep up the manhunt.

The sheriff said it’s been a long day, “or couple of days.”

When asked if Harris-Moore had been caught, he laughed:

“Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

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