A survivalist nicknamed “The Mountain Man” who for more than five years eluded officers tracking him in connection with numerous cabin break-ins, has been arrested, Utah authorities said.

Emery County Sheriff's Office via AP

Detectives John Barnett and Jerod Curtis take fugitive Troy James Knapp into custody Tuesday April 2, 2013, in mountains outside of Ferron in central Utah.

Iron County Sheriff’s officials said Troy James Knapp, 45, was taken into custody Tuesday morning near a reservoir in Sanpete County, central Utah, NBC station KSL TV reported.

Knapp is suspected of breaking into dozens of summer cabins during the winter — eating hot food, drinking alcohol and coffee – before stealing guns, high-end outdoor gear and other provisions, The Associated Press reported. He also allegedly riddled cabins with bullet holes, then vanished into the wilderness.

Knapp is thought to have roamed across 1,000 square miles of rugged territory where snow can pile up 10 feet.

In summer, he fled into the remote mountains of southern and central Utah in order to escape authorities.

Authorities said Knapp even taunted cabin owners and law enforcement officers by leaving threatening notes inside cabins he allegedly burglarized.

“Pack up and leave, get off my mountain,” one note read, KSL reported. "Hey Sheriff ... Gonna put you in the ground!" another note said, according to court records.

Knapp faces a total of 18 charges in Iron, Kane and Garfield counties, KSL reported.

AP file

In this undated photo provided by the Iron County Sheriff's Office in January, a man, thought to be Troy James Knapp, is seen walking past a cabin in the remote southern Utah wildness near Zion National Park.

Knapp’s identity was unknown for years, but in December 2011 a motion-triggered wildlife surveillance camera snapped what is believed to be him as he walked past a cabin in the southern Utah wilderness near Zion National Park.

The picture shows a man dressed head to toe in camouflage with a rifle strapped to his shoulder.

After the sighting, charges were filed in Iron County’s Fifth District Court and a warrant was issued for Knapp’s arrest.

Last October, some 40 officers from several different agencies searched a remote area of Sevier County where Knapp was seen but couldn't find him.

According to The Associated Press, which cited court records, Knapp left California in 2002 in violation of his parole for a burglary conviction. He had been charged with theft in 2000 in California, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years in prison, the records state. 

As a teenager, Knapp was also convicted in Michigan of breaking and entering, passing bad checks and unlawful flight from authorities, according to court records in Kalamazoo County, the AP reported. An arrest for felony assault in Michigan was reduced in 1994 to a charge of malicious destruction of property after he agreed to plead guilty.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

BURIEN, Wash. -- Before he killed his wife and teen daughter and retreated to a remote bunker in Washington's Cascade Mountains, Peter Keller recorded a chilling video explaining his mindset: He was bored.

"It's getting to the point where just trying to live and pay bills and live as a civilian and go to work, that just freaks me out," the 41-year-old survivalist said in a video clip released Thursday by the King County Sheriff's Office. "It's actually more comfortable for me to think about living out here, robbing banks and pharmacies, just taking what I want for as long as I can. At least it'll be exciting."

Keller shot his wife, Lynnettee, and his 18-year-old daughter, Kaylene, at their home in North Bend, east of Seattle, in April. He set canisters of gasoline on the kitchen stove, turned it on, and headed to a fortified, camouflaged bunker he had spent the past eight years building into the steep, thickly forested slope of Rattlesnake Ridge. King County sheriff's detectives spent days trying to figure out where he was.

They narrowed down his hiding spot with tips from the public, who had seen Keller's red pickup at the Rattlesnake Ridge trailhead; a photo taken from the bunker that showed outlet stores in the distance; and the work of trackers who saw his boot-prints in the muddy ground. Keller killed himself as dozens of SWAT officers moved in — an outcome he predicted in his video.

Keller, who believed the end of the world was near, had dubbed his bunker "Camp Keller," according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

PhotoBlog: Images show heavily fortified bunker of Wash. murder suspect

Sheriff Steve Strachan said Keller shot himself on the bunker's top floor before falling to the lower level, the Seattle Times reported. Officers found a radio beneath Keller's body, suggesting that he had been monitoring news reports, the Times quoted Strachan as saying.

'At least it'll be exciting'
Looking down into a handheld camera, with his head wreathed by evergreen trees and the blue sky, Keller stated flatly in the video: "If I get caught, I'm just going to shoot myself. I could be dead in two weeks or three weeks, I don't know. It's all up to chance at this point."

He added: "I do have my escape and it's death. Shoot myself. I'm OK with that. ... It won't be boring and I won't have to worry about Lynnettee or Kaylene. Everything'll be taken care of. It'll just be me."

The Post-Intelligencer cited investigation documents that showed Keller was controlling with money, which led his disabled wife to borrow cash from family members.

Lynnettee, who often stayed home and was a scrapbooker who posted scrapbooking videos on the web, had previously told relatives that her husband had established "fairly sizable" savings, the Post-Intelligencer said. She thought they were going to be millionaires when he retired, the newspaper reported, citing investigation documents.

The sheriff's office said it was releasing the video now because recent forensic tests recently proved that one of Keller's guns was used in the murders. There were no other suspects.

In a news conference, Strachan called the video "breathtaking in its evil." It suggested that Keller had planned for weeks, months and maybe even years, to kill his wife and daughter, the Seattle Times reported.

Body found in bunker believed to be that of Peter Keller

Strachan also announced that tens of thousands of dollars was found bundled in the bunker, though he declined to specify how much. Lynnettee's family announced that they would use the money to establish a scholarship fund in Kaylene's memory (www.kaylenesfund.com ) for women who attend DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, where Kaylene had hoped to study video game design.

"The family didn't really find there was a problem with Peter," said Lynnettee's twin brother, Gene Rocha. He described Keller's relationship with his daughter as loving.

"We'd go there for holidays and it was like every father-and-daughter relationship," he said. "She'd look at her father and say, 'Daddy, can I have this?' And he'd say, 'Sure.'"

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Updated at 4:42 p.m. ET: NORTH BEND, Wash. -- Law officers hunting for a self-trained survivalist suspected of killing his wife and daughter on Saturday found a body inside elaborate, underground bunker in the woods of Washington state where he was thought to have been hiding.

Authorities used explosives Saturday morning to blow the roof off the heavily fortified bunker and gain access. They said the body found inside was believed to be that of Peter Keller, who has been on the run since Sunday.

"Once inside deputies discovered a body which they said appeared to be Keller, and it appeared as though he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound," the King County Sheriff's Office said in a press release.

A gun and some blood were found near the body, The Seattle Times reported.

No shots were fired by law enforcement furing the 22-hour standoff, Sheriff Steve Strachan said.

Members of the sheriff's Bomb Disposal Unit were sent in to clear the bunker to ensure there were no planted explosives or booby traps.

Keller had spent eight years building the bunker into the side of Rattlesnake Ridge in the Cascade mountains, police said. It was thoroughly camouflaged and had multiple levels. Photos of the inside of the bunker, released by the King County Sheriff's Office, showed a shelf full of ammunition boxes stacked inside Ziploc bags.

AP

This image released by King County Sheriff's Office shows the outside of bunker.

On Friday, authorities pumped tear gas into the structure after locating it in the Cascade foothills east of Seattle. The dozens of officers didn't immediately enter the bunker because they believed its occupant was armed, and that it might be booby-trapped.

Officers kept watch over the bunker overnight.

With clear weather and a fresh SWAT team in place Saturday morning, it was time to act more aggressively, King County sheriff's Sgt. Katie Larson said.

Hostage negotiators were dropped Saturday morning by helicopter into the rugged site. They were among more

King5.com

Peter Keller

than 100 officers and volunteers from the King County Sheriff’s Office, the Seattle Police Department and other area agencies were on hand.

No police were injured in the siege. Two officers were treated for dehydration and hypothermia from chilly overnight temperatures and released, Larson said.

The raid ended a tense week for law enforcement officials who tried to track down Keller, a gun enthusiast described by his family as having a "survivalist mentality." That Keller was likely armed and on the loose in an extremely popular hiking and mountain-biking area east of Seattle kept many people on edge.

"There's been a huge sigh of relief," Larson said. "Our people are out safe, and the trails are now safe for the community to use."

King5.com

Authorities believe a survivalist suspected of killing his wife and daughter fled to this underground bunker in the woods east of Seattle.

Keller had spent eight years building the bunker into the side of Rattlesnake Ridge, police said. It was thoroughly camouflaged and had multiple levels. Photos of the inside of the bunker, released by the King County Sheriff's Office, showed a shelf full of ammunition boxes stacked inside Ziploc bags.

SWAT teams spent a grueling seven hours on the mountainside Friday morning, virtually crawling over dangerously steep terrain slick with mud from recent rains, before they found the bunker. A number of officers were treated intravenously for dehydration, and one broke his ankle, said sheriff's Sgt. Cindi West said.

After long shifts, the officers appeared exhausted, their faces smeared with camouflage paint, as they rode down the mountain in sport-utility vehicles or armored carriers to be replaced by fresher teams.

SWAT officers who kept watch on the bunker through Friday night said they saw lights going on and off, and they believed its occupant had everything necessary to remain inside for a long time — including a generator, food, gas mask, bullet-resistant vest and many guns.

Photographs found in Keller's home after the killings gave authorities an idea of where it was; in one picture that they enhanced, detectives could make out buildings in nearby North Bend. Combined with reports from alert hikers who remembered seeing his faded red pickup truck at the Rattlesnake Ridge trailhead, the sheriff's office sent experienced trackers to the area, where they found off-trail boot prints confirming their belief that he was somewhere on the ridge.

They could smell smoke from its woodstove before they found it.

Authorities pumped tear gas into the structure Friday, but it failed to flush the occupant — either because it didn't penetrate deep enough into the structure, or because the person had a gas mask.

Officers described the bunker as "amazingly fortified" and said the photos recovered from Keller's house don't do it justice, West said.

The bunker was found at about the 1,350-foot level, several hundred yards due east of a trailhead at Rattlesnake Ridge. It had several entryways and ladders.

King5.com

Lynnettee and Kaylene Keller were found dead in their home

Court documents described Keller as a loner who has a survivalist mentality and has been stockpiling supplies in the woods.

An arrest warrant issued Wednesday accuses him of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson; the home was set on fire after Keller's wife and daughter were shot.

The fire at Keller's home was stopped before the house burned down, and authorities said they found seven gasoline cans placed in different areas of the home.

The King County medical examiner has determined Kaylene Keller, 18, and her mother, Lynnettee Keller, 41, both died from gunshots to the head. Their bodies were found in their bedrooms.

Kaylene's boyfriend told detectives that Peter Keller had shown him his gun collection and several large-caliber rifles and handguns, court documents said. The boyfriend, who was not identified, said Kaylene had told him her father took long hikes on the weekends and was stockpiling supplies at a fort in the woods.

Peter Keller withdrew $6,200 from a bank last week and told one of his co-workers at a computer refurbishing store in Preston that he might not return, according to court documents.

 The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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