MADISON, Neb. – Fingerprint and surveillance video evidence now connects Colton Harris-Moore to crimes along the Columbia River and in the Midwest.
Court papers filed Friday in Madison County, Neb., show that police have videos that captured Harris-Moore breaking into an small airport in Nebraska.
Meanwhile, fingerprints lifted from a stolen boat recovered in Warranton, Ore., near Astoria, match the 19-year-old Camano Island fugitive, police said Tuesday.
The crimes were part of a string of car thefts, burglaries and other offenses believed linked to Harris-Moore and stretching from Washington through Oregon and east into the deep Midwest.
Harris-Moore is wanted on a $100,000 arrest warrant in Nebraska where he’s charged with burglary and theft.
Police in Norfolk, Neb., recovered surveillance video footage from a June 19 break in at the airport there, records show. The 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 suspect in the string of crimes also left fingerprints. Police are analyzing that evidence.
Fingerprints police recovered from a boat stolen June 1 from a marina in Ilwaco and recovered across the Columbia River in Warrenton, Ore., have been linked to Harris-Moore, Warrenton Police Chief Matthew Workman said Tuesday.
Nebraska officials learned within hours of the reported airport burglary that Harris-Moore, 19, was a likely suspect. The five page affidavit links investigations in South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Washington to Harris-Moore.
During the June 19 airport burglary in Nebraska, somebody tried to steal an airplane but was unable to open the doors, police said. Detectives believe the burglar used a broom handle during the attempted theft. 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.
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.
Early Sunday, deputies rushed to an Illinois bar after a patron twice called 911 to report that an armed Harris-Moore was there, said Fred Kientzle, a chief deputy with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office.
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.
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