BARRETT TWP. — A blanket of leaves lay on the ground in front of the Buck Hill Inn on Tuesday night as a lone deer cautiously walked toward the shuttered resort.

Just a few hours before, the area was anything but calm, Dave Kreckman said. In the mid-afternoon, hundreds of state troopers suddenly converged on the hotel in search of suspected cop-killer Eric Matthew Frein. Mr. Kreckman, owner of Mountainhome Bowling Center at 109 Golf Drive, just down the road from the former vacation hub in Cresco, said the police surge included dozens of vehicles and a helium balloon.

“They had a helicopter flying so low you could see the color of the bottom of their boots,” he said.

The search comes after a resident in the area reported seeing Mr. Frein crossing Route 390. Trooper Connie Devens confirmed the sighting of a man in a black sweatshirt near the inn earlier Tuesday, but would not give specifics about where or what time the sighting happened.

As dusk fell Tuesday, a handful of officers and four police vehicles remained near the inn.

Mr. Frein, 31, 308 Seneca Lane, Canadensis, is the sole suspect in the Sept. 12 ambush at the Blooming Grove state police barracks that killed Cpl. Bryon K. Dickson II, 38, of Dunmore and wounded Trooper Alex T. Douglass, 31, of Olyphant.

This is at least the second time the inn has been searched since police began looking for Mr. Frein 46 days ago. More than 100 members of law enforcement combed the abandoned resort on Sept. 26. State police said then that the search of the inn was unrelated to any sighting in the area.

Last week, two people reported separate sightings of Mr. Frein in the Swiftwater area, about 10 miles south of Barrett Twp. The reports shifted the focus of the search from the area around Mr. Frein’s home to the Swiftwater area, including Pocono Mountain School District’s Swiftwater Campus.

But Mr. Kreckman doubts the fugitive could have made the trek down to Swiftwater and then back to Barrett Twp. without being spotted more often.

“It has people saying, ‘Is this guy Houdini or something?’” he said.

Despite his belief Mr. Frein never left the area and the sudden increase of police in his business’ back yard, Mr. Kreckman said he’s not afraid.

“I just feel sorry for all these troopers out here,” he said. “They have to leave their families and come out here and look for a guy that killed one of their own.”

Contact the reporter: lranker@timesshramrock.com, @lrankerNEWS on Twitter