Fugitive Lives 3 Years In Well-Stocked Bunker Until Hunter Walked Through Door

A Wisconsin fugitive wanted for child sexual assault and possession of child pornography hid from the prying eyes of authorities for more than three years while living in a makeshift bunker powered by solar panels and a pedal generator.

The suspect, Jeremiah Button, disappeared in 2016 two weeks before he was supposed to stand trial in Portage County for the said crimes. One source said that 44-year old Button had been out on a $25,000 cash bond for more than a year when he suddenly vanished into thin air.

It was during this time that Button built his bunker. In his statement that he later told to the Marathon County Sheriff's Office, his makeshift hideout was “carved into an embarkment near the Ice Age Trail on a state land” in Ringle. It was completely out of sight and was protected by “thickened underbush” that he created to concel his location.

Button could have continued living in his bunker if Thomas Nelson didn't saw the brush marks.

Nelson found the door to the bunker months ago while hunting in Ringle. Out of curiosity, the hunter returned Friday to investigate what was inside. The hunter saw that the door was unlatched, so he went in.

“ I pushed the door open, and I look inside and I can see canned foods, there's little storage boxes, and I'm like... I gotta go in,” Nelson said. It was when he came around that he saw Button “laying on his bed.”

“ I was shaking when I went in, I was shaking when I went out,” he noted, adding that there was no way one could have seen Button's bunker if they “didn't know there was something there.”

Nelson moved away from the bunker, called the police and led them through the door. After a twenty minute standoff between the authorities and Button, the suspect was taken into custody.

After his arrest, Button told the deputies that he had been building his bunker while his case was coursing thorugh court and stockpiled it with things that he found at the local dump.

Lt. Jeff Stefonek pointed that Button had “solar panels up on the roof that power three car batteries inside the structure.” These powered LED lights, radios, cooling fans and “all sorts of electronic equipment.”

Button's bunker also had a bike-powered generator and he even built a “contraption for filtering water.”

“ He was not only surviving, but thriving in this structure through all of the different supplies he was able to find,” Stefonek said.

Marathon County Sheriff Deputy Matt Kecker also noticed that Button was “almost glad for human interaction,” although he interacted with the “occasional hicker.”

Button is now in custody on a $100,000 cash bond and is due for a pre-trial on September 16.