Who is burning Yukon River cabins and stealing food?

On the Yukon River this summer, concerns have been escalating after cabin break-ins in June and July near Ruby, the burning of a family's longtime fish camp downriver near Galena, and sinister-sounding notes that seemed designed to be found.

Alaska State Troopers are saying little, but people with places along the river think those events are related. And they suggest that a drifter, maybe someone with mental illness, is to blame.

It is creepily familiar. About 10 years ago, someone broke into some of those same cabins, says Ginger DeLima of Ruby, whose cabin was hit both times. With her husband's help, troopers in 2007 arrested a man, Jerald Harrison, who had holed up in a squatter's lean-to in the wild country, she said. Harrison ended up serving a couple of years in prison that time, getting out in 2009.

"Same M.O. this time," DeLima said.

Whoever is burning and stealing from cabins and camps on the Yukon this summer remains on the loose.

People whose property was targeted say odd notes left behind suggest the culprit is someone obsessed with a Fairbanks City Council member, Joy Huntington. Harrison also has said bizarre things about that same council member.

Troopers, the main law enforcement in the region, are investigating the fires and the break-ins. No one has been charged. Troopers aren't saying if they have suspects or whether the cases are connected.

So far, reports of suspicious activity on the Yukon River are not enough to go on, said troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters. Not only are troopers investigating the incidents, but Peters described rising agitation among cabin owners.

"It's, 'There they are on a four-wheeler,' or, 'Someone's coming down the river on the kayak,' and it's, 'Oh! It's so-and-so.' But they have no idea who the person is or even if they are related to anything whatsoever," Peters said. "People are working themselves up into a frenzy."

Residents need to immediately report cabin break-ins while the trail is fresh, troopers say. Some of the recent Yukon River burglaries only came to troopers' attention after a third person reported them, Peters said.

Footprints in the snow

Harrison, now age 59, is on the minds of some Yukon residents once again.

He first showed up around Ruby more than 20 years ago and had run-ins with people including the then-mayor.

One time, Harrison opened up the mayor's truck door and threw in the contents of a honey bucket, said DeLima, the Ruby resident.

"Everybody calls him Slop Bucket Jerry because of what he did," she said.

Harrison got into trouble in 2004 and 2007 around the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, with convictions for weapons misconduct, criminal mischief and trespass, court records show. When talking to troopers in 2007, he described himself as homeless and said he had lived in camps along the Yukon for 25 years, stealing food, fish, supplies and guns.

The chain of events this summer started in early June with a break-in at a cabin near the abandoned settlement of Kokrines on the Yukon, upriver from Ruby, DeLima said. One of her fellow church members reported someone had taken all the food and some "super expensive binoculars."

Then, locals believe, the person started moving downriver, stealing from some cabins near Ruby, then burning the family fish camp near Galena.

Troopers said they know of three burglarized cabins, all within 20 miles or so of Ruby. Someone entered a fourth one, but nothing was taken or damaged, so it is not considered a burglary, Peters said.

From the burglarized cabins, the thief emptied food boxes of oatmeal and pancake mix, rice and dried potatoes, and took other things, DeLima said. From her family's cabin, a propane canister and her grandpa's old AM-FM radio were stolen, she said. But no gasoline was swiped, suggesting the thief didn't have a boat.

A generator was left behind too, though the thief took an old sleeping bag, Peters said.

About 10 years ago, food and guns were stolen from the DeLima cabin, DeLima said. Weapons are now secured in a gun safe, she said.

After those earlier thefts, her husband was wolf hunting when he found footprints in the snow. Jay DeLima followed them to a lived-in lean-to, then later led troopers the spot, Ginger DeLima said. A team of troopers arrested Harrison.

Wild accusations

The burning of cabins near Galena in July destroyed a fish camp that a family has used since the early 1980s.

Cathy Evans of Galena, her mother and sister all lost their cabins, along with a fourth one being used as a storage cache, Evans said.

Alan Evans, her husband, now dead, cut logs with a chain saw for their cabin even though he only had one arm, losing the other in an accident. Her late father, Edward Pitka, for whom the state airport in Galena is named, built a cabin too.

"Everybody that built those places is gone," Evans said.

The family reunited at fish camp most every July for matriarch Laura Pitka's birthday, a gathering they called Pitka-Palooza. This year, she turned 90.

The third cabin belonged to Evans' sister, Joyce Huntington. The targeted Fairbanks city council woman is Joy Huntington. Joy's ex-husband was a Huntington.

The cabin owners don't know if the burning was a case of mistaken cabin identity or a coincidence.

Notes making wild accusations about Joy Huntington being a shaman who tortured anyone in her way were found at the burned and burglarized cabins, said Huntington, DeLima and others.

People are worried, on the lookout and arming themselves against intruders, said Sheila Cheverie, one of Evans' daughters.

Hotel disturbance

Harrison has fixated on Joy Huntington before.

At a Fairbanks City Council meeting in July 2016, Harrison spoke during the time set aside for public testimony, as he often did. He accused then-Mayor John Eberhart of being "a psychopath" and made suggestive, vaguely threatening comments about Huntington, according to minutes of the meeting.

At the meeting, Huntington said he was out of line and should be removed if he continued. Later that night, as council members gave their wrap-up comments, Huntington said that violent and threatening language had no place in council meetings.

A few weeks later, Harrison told council members he wanted them to feel what it was like to be a social outcast.

In January of this year, Harrison created a ruckus at a hotel in downtown Fairbanks, according to a police blotter item in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

He wasn't a guest but went into the hotel, wrote on the wall, menaced staff with a pen, barricaded himself in an office and discharged a fire extinguisher, the news report said. He also shouted that two Fairbanks City Council members were demons sent to kill him, the paper reported.

Joy Huntington said in an interview that she was one of those named council members but she is at a loss as to what was behind Harrison's focus on her.

"I don't have an answer as to why he is targeting me but I can say with confidence that I have not directly provoked him, in any way," Huntington said.

She hasn't had run-ins with him personally or through the city, she said.

"This fixation is completely unprovoked," she said.

Harrison was charged with fourth-degree assault and criminal mischief in the hotel incident, court records show. On Wednesday, a warrant was issued for Harrison's arrest.

Moving on

Some of the family members who lost their fish camp gathered there Sunday to start cleanup. They piled sheet metal and stoves. The family is considering barging in heavy equipment to dig holes for burial of the debris.

Sandy Evans, one of the family members, said it was eerie to think of a drifter there, maybe watching them.

The family hopes to rebuild, said her mother, Cathy Evans. They need a peaceful gathering place and shelter for moose hunting time.