Tracking

The Daily Mail published an article earlier this week about the "survivalist," Peter Keller, who killed his family and then fled to an underground bunker. He was tracked there by the police and then killed. The story raises a few interesting points for those who plan on bugging out to a remote retreat when the SHTF, concerning tracking an opsec issues.

First, the police used photographs Keller had taken near his retreat to narrow down where he had gone:

After shooting dead his wife, daughter, cat and dog, Peter Keller did not want to be found.

Troy Chaffee knew where to look for him. From photos discovered at Keller's home, King County sheriff's detectives deduced that he had probably headed into the Cascade Mountains, to Rattlesnake Ridge, a tall hump of forested rock where he'd spent the past eight years building a bunker.

Having identified the search area, they then used simple tracking techniques to further confirm and narrow the search area:

Chaffee and another deputy, a woman with tracking experience, decided to go incognito. They dressed like anyone out for a day trip - red backpack, light hiking pants and a rain hat. The only thing unusual was the extra ammunition tucked away in the backpack.

Heading into the woods by the water tower, they knew they wouldn't be able to track the way they usually do, on hands and knees, examining every boot print and twig.

Somewhere above them was Keller, with a high-powered rifle, scope and binoculars. Instead, they'd observe the ground while walking and standing, and chat as any couple might.

One step into the woods, Chaffee knew someone had been there recently. By his fourth step, he knew it was Keller. There were small leaves in the dimpled, muddy earth.

They were torn, but the tears were fresh - they hadn't browned or healed. On the leaves were specks of dirt:

They hadn't been washed off, so must have been left before the last rain - sometime overnight or early that morning. The prints appeared to come from military-style boots.

'Four steps in, we're going up a creek, up an area no one else would go up,' Chaffee said.

'It's steep, it's treacherous, the footing is dangerous, there's no trails, it's at night.

'That's somebody who's hiding, who doesn't want to be seen. Makes sense that it's him.'

He relayed the information back to the detectives using his cellphone because he believed Keller probably had a scanner and did not want to risk using the radio.

It was the final confirmation the detectives needed. They already had the photo, taken from the bunker, showing the North Bend outlet stores in the distance, and reports from hikers who remembered seeing Keller's faded red pickup truck at the Rattlesnake Ridge trail head.

With the tracks, they knew for sure he was somewhere in the area of this creek, swollen with early spring rains.

The final giveaway was the scent from a cooking fire:

At daybreak the next morning, dozens of SWAT officers from Seattle and King County swarmed the mountainside, their faces streaked with camouflage paint.

They slogged for seven hours, sometimes on hands and knees through steep, muddy terrain, thick with cedars, spruce, ferns and salal.

They could smell the smoke from the bunker's woodstove, an aluminum trash can with holes, before they could see it - Keller was inside.

They surrounded the bunker, which had no escape route, and Keller wound up committing suicide.

I have no sympathy for a murderer, but this does provide some interesting lessons.