BLOOMING GROVE TOWNSHIP -- Six months ago two troopers were ambushed outside the state police barracks in Pike County. One was killed and another was seriously wounded.
That infamous suspect, Eric Frein, is alone in a cell in the Pike County jail near Lords Valley, where he's been since his capture the day before Halloween.
Behind a new, heavy steel door inside the state police barracks at Blooming Grove hang pictures of Corporal Bryon Dickson and a poster saying, "We told you we were coming for you..." with Eric Frein in handcuffs.
So much has changed at this barracks since September 12, 2014: security upgrades and a sense things will never be the same.
“Time has sped up. Can't believe six months have gone by, but at the same time, seems like a period of years has elapsed,” State Police Lt. Chris Paris said.
Station Commander Chris Paris says Trooper Alex Douglass is doing well, looking ahead to his 16th surgery.
Six months ago, troopers did not see him when investigators say he opened fire on the Blooming Grove barracks.
A massive manhunt ensued, and along with it, questions of how Frein was able to stay free for 48 days.
Eric Frein is alleged to have passed underneath Interstate 84, possibly in a creek. State police say he tried to escape the manhunt that followed him south to the Canadensis area where that search focused for several weeks.
State police say Frein was on foot, but we still don't know where he was or what path he took after the shooting and before his capture some 30 miles away at the abandoned Birchwood Resort near Tannersville.
Frein's ability to evade state police, ATF, FBI, and U.S. Marshals was even mentioned on cable TV on FX's "Justified."
“I don't want this guy going all Eric Frein on us, holed up in some derelict airport while we're out here for weeks.”
State police say they've spent nearly $12 million on the search, mostly in overtime.
Through a right-to-know request, Newswatch 16 found that amount includes nearly $90,000 worth of hi-tech field cameras and radios.
State police bought 60 trail cameras at more than $1,000 each. They're far more advanced than the kind you'll find in a sporting goods store like Hunter's Gallery near Hamlin.
“You got to use whatever you can use to find people. Like any other hunter, you have to go where the tracks lead. Where did the tracks lead,” one hunter said.
“Overkill on that one. I don't know why they didn't find him in such a small area,” said Harold Walshaw of Lake Ariel.
As for the cameras, state police would only say “they were used during the search to assist in locating Frein.” And that the “items will be used by state police in the future if circumstances warrant it.” What troopers won't say is whether the cameras did help find Frein.
Shortly after Frein's capture at the old Birchwood Resort in October, state police said that area was looked at before.
“We have searched that area previously probably within the last week or so. Prior to that we had teams up through there, but there's no way to search and secure an area,” State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said in October.
But now, state police refuse to tell us what, if any, searches were done at the resort in the weeks before Frein was captured.
Newswatch 16 wrote to Frein, asking for his side of things. Prison officials say he received our letters, but declined to talk. We have no way of knowing if Frein actually saw those letters.
