A Kasilof man is charged with sending death threats to people in Vermont.
Federal authorities said they arrested 34-year-old Benjamin Tarbell before he was set to fly to Vermont from the Kenai Municipal Airport on Friday afternoon. He faces six felony counts of sending threatening interstate communications.According to a charging document, Tarbell moved from Vermont to Alaska in April and was struggling with a recent divorce.
Tarbell had been sending threatening messages over text and on Instagram to several different people in Vermont and other states last month, with messages escalating in violent tone over the course of the month, according to the charges. The charges also said Tarbell called and threatened to bomb the Massachusetts State Police in early September.
Tarbell had tickets to fly from Kenai to Burlington, Vt. and was slated to land on Sept. 11. He had mentioned in several of the threatening texts that he would be in Vermont then, according to the charges.
Tarbell’s first court appearance is set for Thursday in Anchorage.
