Dec 29, 2014 3 min read

CANADENSIS, Pa. (AP) — Justine Knipe learned to live with the helicopters.

For nearly 48 days this fall, the steady “thump-thump-thump” of helicopter rotors pounded overhead. They often continued all night near her home on Spruce Cabin Road.

The search for Eric Matthew Frein sometimes moved within a stone’s throw of Mountainhome Candles, a business Knipe co-owns on Route 390. It was as if the helicopters followed her to work.

“Even when I slept, I dreamed about helicopters,” Knipe said at her shop on a rainy Tuesday, almost two months after the manhunt for Frein ended. “But now I don’t.”

The specter of the 48-day, $11 million manhunt is slowly fading from the scenic Poconos village.

Frein, 31, of Canadensis, led local, state and federal officials on a chase through Blooming Grove, Canadensis and Swiftwater before his capture Oct. 30 at an abandoned airport hangar in a defunct Pocono Township resort.

Prosecutors say Frein killed state police Cpl. Bryon K. Dickson II and wounded Trooper Alex T. Douglass in an ambush outside the Blooming Grove barracks on Sept. 12.

Trooper Douglass recently returned home from a rehabilitation facility and will spend Christmas with his family.

Blue ribbons, many looking new, still hung from telephone poles and fences in Canadensis in late December, a sign of solidarity with law enforcement.

Frein’s family home was tastefully decorated for Christmas. A Santa Claus sat near the front porch. Simple lights framed the trim.

But the shadow the manhunt cast has not completely left.

A decline in commerce within the search zone affected the businesses that line the main strip of town. The prolonged intensity of the search in Canadensis frayed nerves and likely kept consumers away, said Charlie Miller, owner of the Quiet Man Bookshop on Route 390.

Miller said normalcy is returning, but the loss of the fall foliage season hurt business.

At first, he thought emergency grant money might be available but recent correspondence from the Monroe County Emergency Management office only lists the possibility of low interest loans.

While the loans may help some, the prospect of adding another monthly payment is not attractive.

“Hopefully, things do get back to normal,” Miller said. “Otherwise, there will be a lot of empty storefronts.”

Knipe said her business got a boost in the days immediately following the capture.

At least 20 people from other states visited her business and said they had read about the manhunt and wanted to stop by and buy things from local shops, she said. Those were moments to reaffirm one’s faith in humanity, she said.

The shadow will pass, she said. The helicopters are gone, along with the endless convoys of state police vehicles. People smile now.

“You didn’t realize how serious everyone was until it was all over,” Knipe said. “The day after, everyone was smiling and being friendly. It was almost like we won the war.”