At 3:34 am early Friday morning, the Mat-Su Bureau of Highway Patrol performed a traffic stop on a vehicle at Mile-post 10.5 of the Knik-Goose Bay Road.

As the vehicle rolled to a stop, a back-seat passenger bolted from the vehicle and fled into the woods.

On questioning, a front-seat passenger, 33-year-old Jason W. Bay, stated to the oficers that he didn’t know who the back-seat passenger was and said that he was a hitch-hiker that they had picked up earlier.

Palmer Troopers and Wasilla Police were called in with K-9 “Marshal,”to locate the fleeing passenger. A short time later, officers were able to locate the subject and he was identified as 23-year-old Rory E. Vail of Wasilla.

As the investigation continued, it was found that Vail had both felony and misdemeanor warrants for his arrest. Additionally, Vail was found to have 3.72 grams of marijuana on his person.

Further investigation of Vail found that his cell phone had text messages on it warning him of the impending search for him in the woods. When they checked the sending number on the phone, they found the messages were sent by Bay, the other pasenger that they had questioned earlier and who had denied knowing Vail.

Vail was arrested on warrants issued for failure to appear on multiple theft and MICS IV charges, leaving the scene of an accident, and failure to report an accident.

Vail was transported to Mat-Su Pretrial and remanded there on a $10,000 bail and Third AParty requirement for the felonies and $1,000 for the misdemeanor warrant.

Troopers would go on to re-contact Bay at his nearby residence and question him again about Vail. Bay then admitted to officers that he did indeed know Vail and had sent the text messages.

Bay was arrested on charges of Hindering Prosecution I and II and transported and remanded to the Mat-Su Pretrial facility where he was held on $2,500 bail.