Alaska State Troopers received a report of a suspected theft of property from a recreational cabin in Willow on 8/12/2019 at approximately 1642 hours.
Interview with the complainant revealed he saw a post on Facebook that included pictures of what appeared to be his homemade smoker that is kept at his cabin off Sand Pebble Lane in Willow.
The complainant recognized the person who made the Facebook post as his neighbor, William Billsbrough. The pictures Billsbrough posted on Facebook revealed what looked like the complainant’s smoker next to a shed located on Billsbrough’s property on Sand Pebble Lane. At that time, there was not sufficient evidence to contact Billsbrough about the smoker. The smoker was listed as stolen and investigation was ongoing. The complainant later provided the evidence needed to apply for a search warrant.
On 8/28/2019, at approximately 2000 hours, Alaska State Troopers applied for and was granted a search warrant to search the premise of Billsbrough’s property. At approximately 2040 hours the search warrant was served and the stolen smoker was recovered and removed from Billsbrough’s property.
William Billsbrough, age 58 of Willow, was arrested and transported to Mat-Su Pretrial where he was remanded on Theft 3 and Criminal Trespass 1. He was later released on his own recognizance.
