Valley man disappears after truck fire

WASILLA — Having allegedly torched his father-in-law’s pickup Dec. 20, a 34-year-old man has apparently been hiding from the law and his family ever since.

According to a sworn statement Alaska State Trooper Andrew Gault filed in court, the case began as a report of a suspicious vehicle fire at a home off of Knik-Goose Bay Road near the Knik Bar.

“I observed a white 1998 Dodge Ram 2500 … that was smoldering,” Gault writes of his first impressions upon arriving at the scene. “I observed what appeared to be the metal from a box-spring mattress protruding from the driver’s side door. I observed a gas can by the northeast corner of the garage door. I observed a can of beer on the ground outside the garage door.”

He said the homeowner told him he’d gone outside to use his snowblower and he’d seen the truck was on fire. The truck wasn’t his.

He said he suspected Jeremiah Hoover might have set the truck on fire. Hoover had lost his job and his house and, with his family, had been living with the homeowner and was “extremely depressed.’

The homeowner “pointed out the can of beer left at the scene. He stated that if Jeremiah was intoxicated and angry, he may be capable of setting the fire,” Gault wrote.

Gault also talked to the truck’s owner, who “stated the truck contained all of his property. He stated he did not have any enemies and did not know who burned the truck.”

A big portion of Gault’s statement concerns his subsequent search for Hoover. A neighbor said someone had rattled her gate and when she asked who was there, the person said, “Jeremiah,” but left soon after.

Gault next talked to a homeowner who’d left her Subaru running in her driveway on Starlight Lane. Someone stole it, but very quickly put it in the ditch. It was unoccupied by the time Gault found it at the intersection of Horizon Drive and Knik-Goose Bay Road.

Gault called in a police dog, but the trail the dog followed led in and out of the treeline and they were unable to find Hoover.

A friend of Hoover’s later showed up at the scene of the fire. He said Hoover had stopped by drunk and swearing about both the homeowner and the owner of the truck.

The friend told him that Jeremiah claimed to have “placed a pillow/bed in the vehicle, poured diesel gasoline on it and lit it on fire.”

Gault also stopped by the home where Hoover’s wife was staying and didn’t find him there. The wife said she hadn’t seen him in a few days as they’d been arguing.

“I responded to several residences where Jeremiah was known to frequent and was unable to locate him,” Gault wrote.

And that’s kind of where the narrative Gault lays out ends. Troopers are still seeking to arrest Hoover on charges of criminally negligent burning and criminal mischief. But they haven’t found him.

Neither has his family been able to contact him. By Dec. 30, the family was worried enough about not having seen Hoover that they contacted the Frontiersman asking for help. But on Thursday, they called off the search.

“An update for all those concerned about my brother Jeremiah Hoover — he is alive, he is not really ‘missing’ anymore, I guess. Just doesn’t want to be found,” his brother wrote on Facebook. “So thanks for all your concern and support. Hopefully he will come to his senses soon.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.