The fugitives, a boyfriend and girlfriend duo, were served up for troopers, who found them bound with zip ties and disarmed of the weapons they were believed to have stolen during at least nine burglaries perpetrated since December. Troopers said the girlfriend had a bloodied upper lip.
And then there was a third person confronted by the vigilantes: a man who got into a scuffle when they tried to detain him against his will, troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said.
"We have to investigate the whole thing," Peters said. "It's a big mess that we're looking into and we're trying to sort out to make sure that the appropriate action is taken, whatever it might be."
The break-ins began shortly after Raven Rainwater, 15, ran away from home with her boyfriend, Chaunce Hoxie, 20, on Dec. 16, according to court documents. In the time since, cabins and businesses, many near Cottonwood Lane and Birch Haven Road, were broken into and rifled through. The thieves stole necessities like food, but also jewelry and weapons.
Items stolen from the cabin of Mark Cocke, who would later be involved in the citizen's arrest on Monday, included a Ruger .44 Magnum pistol and about $20,000 in jewelry, according to an affidavit filed in court by trooper Sgt. Ted Nordgaarden.
"It affected this community in a lot of ways," said Glen Showalter, a 54-year-old North Slope worker who, together with Cocke, arrested the suspects. "I can't tell you how many women that you get calls from that are afraid to sleep at home because their boyfriend or husband's away."
Troopers were on the case. Court documents show they followed the suspects' movements in the area using footprints in the snow and tried tracking them down on snowmachine and by helicopter as the fugitives hid in the woods.
But as the break-ins continued and arrests didn't come, people were getting angry and decided to get involved themselves. They held a meeting last week and discussed forming a posse to hunt down the fugitives.
Troopers have four officers stationed in Anchor Point -- enough, they say, to reasonably handle the local caseload -- and they try to have at least one on duty at all times, Peters said.
One victim was Shanna Roderick, 32, whose husband's business was broken into, as was a cabin she was watching. The thieves stole her 9mm pistol, she said. She called troopers about the burglaries several times and got little response, she said. Despite that, she said, she thought things got out of hand after the neighborhood patrols started.
When Roderick checked up on the friend's cabin she was watching, a neighbor told her she needed to report in whenever she was in the area, she said. One man told her if she didn't respond when called, he would shoot, Roderick said.
"It was getting to where it was more than just those kids who were in danger," Roderick said. "It was kind of scary for the rest of us, because I'm not sure which one was worse," she said, meaning the thieves or the vigilantes.
Richard Bolton, 44, encountered the vigilantes earlier this week. He'd been on the beach and found a bag of change in an area where people go gold panning, he said. The men came across him and threw him to the ground on the beach at gunpoint, he said. Then on Monday about noon he was roughed up when walking to talk to troopers.
"He jumped out and attacked me, threw me up against the truck, punched me in the face, threw me on the ground, choking me," said Bolton, who went to the hospital with bruises and abrasions. "I'm really a prisoner in my own house right now because I don't trust them."
Showalter says he thinks Bolton was involved in the break-ins because of the coins he had. But according to trooper Nordgaarden's affidavit, Bolton helped at least one of the victims of the burglars. Nordgaarden said Bolton has known Hoxie since childhood and tried last month to get the pair to turn themselves in. He also got Roderick's gun back from them.
Showalter and Cocke called troopers Monday morning to say they were going on patrol. Showalter says troopers just told them to call if they found anything.
"One of the other troopers said, you know, you guys are going to have to participate in this if we're going to get them," Showalter said. "They basically wanted us to call. In our case, we didn't have no time to call."
The vigilantes armed themselves with a pistol and shotgun because they believed Hoxie and Rainwater were armed, Showalter said. They came upon one cabin on the beach where they found camping gear that appeared to belong to the fugitives. They continued on to another property.
What happened next is in dispute. Hoxie's version of events, related by troopers in Nordgaarden's affidavit, was that Hoxie was collecting firewood while Rainwater went to the beach. They talked over a set of walkie-talkies, and at one point Rainwater told him there was a spruce hen he should shoot.
As Hoxie was walking down, the men intercepted them, tied their hands with zip ties and, in the process, butted Rainwater in the face with the shotgun, Hoxie told troopers. Rainwater gave a similar version of events.
"Raven did say when the guys caught her she was pushed hard on the ground where she hit her face," Nordgaarden wrote in his affidavit. "The guy kept yelling at her and said he'd kill her if she moved."
Showalter, however, said there was no butting with the shotgun, no yelling, no death threats. The prisoners were treated "so ginger" until they were turned over to troopers, he said. As they approached the area, Hoxie took a shot in their direction, and Showalter said he doesn't think it was at a bird.
"There was a shot running out and he was going for cover," Showalter said.
Still, Hoxie apparently surrendered without further incident. Troopers arriving on scene found the pair cuffed with zip ties.
Hoxie was arrested and jailed in Homer on warrants for failing to appear in court and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He has also been hit with felony charges of burglary and theft. Rainwater was booked into the Kenai Juvenile Justice facility, troopers said.
A man who answered the phone at Hoxie's home on Thursday declined to comment.
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