Balloon not helpful in police manhunt

CANADENSIS — State police say an unmanned balloon brought in from Ohio has not been helpful in the search for a suspect in the killing of a state trooper.

Trooper Tom Kelly, a state police spokesman, says the state police returned the Mylar balloon to the Ohio Department of Transportation on Tuesday.

Kelly says dense brush and rugged terrain in the Pocono Mountains search area hampered use of the tethered, weather balloonlike device.

The Ohio agency sent the balloon last week as troopers entered a sixth week of searching for 31-year-old Eric Frein.

Frein is charged with opening fire outside the Blooming Grove barracks on Sept. 12, killing Trooper Bryon Dickson and seriously wounding Trooper Alex Douglass.

County selling guns used in suicidesGREENSBURG — A Western Pennsylvania coroner is auctioning off about 100 guns used in suicides and accidental shooting deaths.Corner Ken Bacha says the Nov. 8 surplus weapons sale is Westmoreland County government's first since his father was coroner in the 1980s.He says state law requires local governments sell off unclaimed property. Proceeds will help fund county government.Bacha's office took possession of the guns during death investigations. Family members had a year to get them back before they became county property. Some of the weapons have been in the county's hands for decades.