Schools close after Eric Frein sighting intensifies Pennsylvania hunt

A Pennsylvania school district abruptly canceled classes Tuesday morning as police stepped up their efforts to find a survivalist who has been on the lam since a deadly ambush of a state police barracks last month.

There have been two recent sightings of Eric Frein, 31, charged with opening fire outside the Blooming Grove State Police barracks on Sept. 12, killing a trooper and seriously wounding another.

The latest sighting was Monday afternoon at the Swiftwater post office, officials said. Police searched but there was no contact with Frien, a self-taught survivalist who is believed to be hiding deep in the woods around the region.

The post office is less than half a mile from the Pocono Mountain School District’s Swiftwater campus, which includes a high school, junior high and elementary school.

The school district on Monday had decided to hold classes as usual, but in a 5 a.m. posting on its website, announced it would cancel classes.

Monday’s sighting came three days after reports of a man with a rifle near Pocono Mountain East High School.

Authorities had been searching for Frein in the woods around his parents’ home in Canadensis but shifted their primary search area some six miles to the southwest after Friday night’s sighting.

Meanwhile, state police on Monday told reporters that blood found at two homes in the search area is unconnected to Frein.

Police have said they believe Frein could be seeking food and shelter in unused cabins or vacation homes.

It was thought that if the blood was Frein’s, it might be a lead on the whereabouts of the man. But any connection was ruled out by DNA testing, police said.

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