Alaska State Troopers said Saturday they had arrested three suspects in the theft of steel, aluminum and copper worth about $30,000 from a fish hatchery in Eklutna this winter, and six other suspects had been identified in the crime, which may have taken place over the course of weeks.
According to troopers, Palmer residents Michael P. Scott, 35, and Corey S. Jenson, 19, were arrested Friday in connection with the theft, which was first reported to troopers with the Criminal Suppression Unit on Nov. 8. A third suspect, 18-year-old Brian Armstrong of Palmer, was arrested Saturday.
"During the event(s), the perpetrators caused approximately $30,000 worth of damage by cutting through walls to access copper wire and other locked portions of the building," troopers said in the dispatch.
The Eklutna Salmon Hatchery sits on state land at the head of the Eklutna Tailrace and is operated by the nonprofit Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association. The popular sportfishing destination is stocked with hatchery fish. The Eklutna Hatchery opened in 1982 and operated regularly until 1998, and is now maintained as a backup facility for the Trail Lakes Hatchery in Kenai. It's used in the summer by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to rear 400,000 king salmon used in the Tailrace, according to the association's Executive Director Gary Fandrei.
Fandrei said the association uses the facility to stage work being conducted farther north in the Mat-Su area, and employees swing by semiregularly, even in the off months, to check on the hatchery.
"We do go up there on a fairly regular basis. We're up in Anchorage; we try to stop by and check on a few things, and there's some equipment up there that we like to access every once in a while," Fandrei said Saturday.
According to trooper Sgt. Tony Wegrzyn, head of the troopers' crime suppression unit in Mat-Su, the theft had apparently been taking place over "a series of weeks" and may have involved as many as nine people.
On the day the theft was reported, Fandrei said an aquaculture association employee arrived at the site and interacted with three people who were outside the hatchery, though there was no confrontation and the employee didn't initially believe anything was wrong.
"That's when we walked in and saw there was more to it than that," Fandrei said. Troopers were called immediately, he said.
He added that the facility typically has a functional alarm system but due to a power outage the suspects were able to gain access without setting off the alarm. A large portion of the damage was to a generator building outside the main facility, he said.
Jenson and Scott weren't arrested until Friday, and though it wasn't immediately clear what led investigators to the men, Wegrzyn said it had taken time to establish a strong case in the burglary.
In addition to being charged with the hatchery burglary, troopers said Scott was also identified as a suspect in a Dec. 13 theft of nearly $2,000 worth of goods from a vehicle in the community of Glacier View, 100 miles north of Anchorage along the Glenn Highway. Wegrzyn said those goods were primarily high-end camping and ice-climbing gear, not all of which have been recovered.
Both men were taken to the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility. Scott faces charges of burglary, theft, criminal mischief and tampering with physical evidence, and his bail was set at $30,000 cash-only and a court-approved third-party custodian. Jenson faces multiple burglary charges as well as theft, criminal mischief and tampering with evidence charges. His bail was set at $100,000 cash/corporate bond and a third-party custodian. Armstrong was being held on similar charges, and was being held without bail pending arraignment, troopers said Saturday evening.
"Several other participants have been identified and the investigation is ongoing," troopers said.
"We have a total of nine (suspects)," Wegrzyn said Saturday, adding that troopers had identified all nine and were withholding identification pending further arrests.
As for the hatchery, Fandrei said he's optimistic the building will be functional again by the time it's due to begin operating in the spring.
"It was insured, we're working with the insurance company right now," he said. "We would like to restore the facility as quickly as possible to a functional condition."
Contact Ben Anderson at ben(at)alaskadispatch.com.