[13] In 2004, Frein was charged with burglary and grand larceny after he was accused of stealing items from vendors at a World War II reenactment in Odessa, New York.

Fellow reenactors believed this was not based on ideology, but the way that the ragtag look of an ex-Yugoslav field jacket stood out from others.

The Eastern Wolves were one of several groups competing in "tacticals" under the umbrella organization "Red Alliance", using replica airsoft rifles with plastic BBs.

In 2009, he gave technical direction in a World War I documentary being made by Jeremiah Hornbaker, who later offered him several other jobs that he turned down.

[15] In July 2014, Frein told Hornbaker, friends, and parents that he was moving to Delaware to work at a chemical company.

[15] At the time of the attack on the state troopers, Frein was living with his parents at their home in Canadensis in Barrett Township, Pennsylvania.

[13][15][21] Three days after the shootings, a man walking his dog found a suspicious looking 2001 Jeep Cherokee partially submerged in a retaining pond or drainage basin in a swamp near the intersection of Pennsylvania Route 402 and U.S. Route 6, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) away from the crime scene.

[32] Though tracking dogs were regarded as a valuable tool, particularly on damp, calm days when scent dissipates most slowly, Frein successfully evaded them using "water crossings and terrain conditions.

[41] The difficulty of capturing Frein was compared to that of finding other survivalist outdoorsmen such as Eric Rudolph, Jason McVean, and Robert William Fisher, whose special training helped them elude police for years.

He claims one officer pointed a rifle at him and forced him to the ground, leaving him with bruised ribs and in fear that he would be shot.

Marshals' Special Operations Group in an open field near an unused airport hangar at Birchwood-Pocono Airpark, an abandoned airfield[45] approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) ENE of Tannersville, on October 30, 2014, 48 days after the shooting.

2716(a), discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, possessing instruments of crime, and recklessly endangering another person.

[65] Also in June 2016, Pike County Judge Gregory Chelak denied a motion made by Frein's attorneys to bar prosecutors from seeking a death sentence in the case.

[66][67] In September 2017, Trooper Bryon Dickson's widow, Tiffany Dickson, filed a lawsuit against Frein's parents alleging they missed warning signs about their son's behavior and that Frein's father ”psychologically manipulated” him into adopting militantly anti-government and anti-police views.