How difficult terrain and military training could complicate the manhunt for a Tennessee suspect

By Emma Tucker, Dianne Gallagher, Holly Yan, CNN

(CNN) — A terrain of steep hills and deep ravines — and a suspect with extensive Army survival training — are complicating a manhunt in Tennessee for a man accused of shooting his wife.

Craig Berry, 53, has been on the run since early Friday after investigators say he shot his wife in Dover, Tennessee, near the Kentucky border. He was last seen wearing camouflage clothing in footage captured by a trail camera before he fled into the woods near the couple’s residence, armed with a rifle and believed to have taken extra ammunition, Stewart County Sheriff Frankie Gray said.

A warrant has been issued accusing Berry of second-degree attempted murder, the sheriff’s office said.

Gray, who advised his community to “remain vigilant” and keep their doors locked, said the manhunt for Berry will be challenging, as he’s trained to survive in the outdoors and is in good physical shape.

“This guy is not just going to pop out on the side of the road,” said Gray. “He’s probably in it for the long haul.”

The manhunt has so far been contained to Stewart County, where search crews are up against an immediate terrain of steep hills with deep ravines or hollows, the sheriff said.

But after the area is cleared, the search will likely be expanded 30 miles from Dover to the sprawling Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, the sheriff said, which has more than 170,000 acres of forests, wetlands and open lands and represents one of the largest areas of undeveloped forest in the eastern US.

What we know about the shooting

The incident took place around 11:30 p.m. Thursday, when Berry is accused of beating his wife and shooting her as she fled into her car, the sheriff said. Berry also got into his vehicle and drove behind her but crashed the car before he got out of the driveway, he added.

Berry’s wife said during an interview at the hospital that an argument with her husband turned violent when he hit her in the head repeatedly and strangled her, according to an arrest warrant.

She has since been released from the hospital and is expected to recover, according to the sheriff. She suffered one gunshot wound to the neck, an arrest warrant affidavit said.

Police found Berry’s vehicle, along with personal items inside, wrecked in the driveway – but Berry was not at the home, the warrant says.

“We know that he went back to his house after that crash and he did get some more ammo” while also changing into camouflage clothing, Gray told CNN. The only sighting of Berry since the incident was captured on a trail camera, or hunting camera, located behind his house about 45 minutes after the shooting, the sheriff said.

Investigators also recovered Berry’s phone from behind the home, he said. Berry made at least one phone call after the incident to his parents, who have been cooperative, the sheriff said.

“We’ve had the one sighting … We had a bloodhound that trailed him to a road and kind of lost it there,” the sheriff said.

Manhunt will be harder because of his training

Berry was an infantryman and a special forces medical sergeant in the Army from 1992 to 2016, leaving the Army as a sergeant first class, according to Christopher Surridge, a US Army spokesperson. He was deployed to Iraq four times, Surridge said.

The sheriff’s office said Berry has “extensive training in survival tactics,” in addition to being an “excellent swimmer and diver.”

Gray said the search for Berry is a “lot harder because of this guy’s training.” His training “taught him to get as far away as he can,” Gray said, adding he still isn’t sure what Berry’s goal is at this point.

“They are trained to get out of the area, stay away from populated areas, use the terrain. He can survive, at least for several days, from what they’ve told me with his training,” the sheriff said.

If Berry is familiar with the area, it will put him at an “extreme advantage over the people who are hunting him down,” said Robert McDonald, an assistant professor at the University of New Haven’s criminal justice and criminology department.

“It also gives him an advantage to have been trained in survival skills in difficult terrains, difficult weather, how to survive with eating plants or animals, or how to stay out of a rainy situation, how to stay warm at night, with respect to what’s available to you,” he said.

Drawing a comparison to a football game, McDonald said Berry’s knowledge, training and capabilities as well as a “drive to stay alive and evade capture,” put him on the offensive side while law enforcement is on the defense.

Vast terrain hinders search

The immediate area in Stewart County where the search is currently contained is covered with big trees and steep hills, as well as snakes and ticks, according to the sheriff.

Weather has also hindered the search, prompting investigators to scale back efforts Sunday into Monday due to rain, he said.

“A person sitting in wait has got the advantage on something like that. They’ll have an advantage anyway, but especially with the rain, things like that, it’s a little bit harder for the officers going in,” said Gray.

Authorities are still focusing on that area but will expand their search after clearing it, the sheriff said, because Berry could have crossed the highway into the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. That means he could be somewhere within 175,000 acres of land, the sheriff said.

That area is filled with a large amount of small, toxic herbaceous material, including poison ivy and stinging medal, said Craig Caudill, a wilderness education expert and director of Nature Reliance School, a Kentucky-based program.

Law enforcement will be looking for Berry to make a mistake, Caudill said. But his training in evasion tactics means he’ll be less likely to make them – even under a stressful situation, Caudill added.

“They’re trained to handle stress exceptionally well, and so they make decisions and make movements under critical thinking skills that are well developed,” Caudill said.

Manhunt will involve ‘calculated scouring’

The Tennessee Highway Patrol, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Forest Service have all helped with the investigation so far, the sheriff said, adding his office will still lead the local search.

Gray’s hope is that the US Marshals will take over most of the fugitive apprehension part given their stronger resources, he said.

The sheriff’s office has a few shifts of deputies, including investigators, conducting the search, Gray said.

They have scaled back from the woods search, instead putting focus on clearing specific locations, he said: “It’s not feasible to send just a few deputies into this gigantic area and expect to come up with anything.”

In the past few days, investigators and deputies have been focused on searching unoccupied summer homes and rentals, Gray added.

Moving forward, the manhunt will involve planning a “calculated scouring” of the wooded area Berry fled into from the residence, with law enforcement likely spreading out and moving forward to capture him, McDonald, the University of New Haven professor, said.

That means search crews will hunt him from “several directions to send him into a courtyard type situation where he’s going to be surrounded,” he added. “But again, that’s going to be very difficult depending upon the weather, the elevation, the coldness at night and a lot of different factors here that both are going to be utilized for his advantage to escape detection.”

Investigators scaled back the massive search Sunday into Monday due to weather, Gray added. But one particular area, near the crime scene, still needs to be combed over.

“We are not ruling out the possibility that he has received some outside assistance after the incident,” the sheriff’s office said. “We have no information that he is no longer in the area.”

The sheriff has wrestled with three possible scenarios, none of which have been confirmed: That Berry had someone pick him up after the incident to flee the area, that he’s still in the area and is moving through the terrain or he hurt himself, he said.

Meanwhile, Gray is telling his community the process could be lengthy – Berry could be located “miles or states away from here,” he said.

“Just give us some patience. I know everybody thinks we need to go in the woods and wrap this up quick, but that’s not how these things work out.”

Suzanne Porter, who works at Dixieland Cabins, a family-owned and operated local business, told CNN, “None of us feel safe right now.”

“We got an armed, dangerous man on the loose within our community. As far as we know, he’s not left the area. Our police department has not said that he has left the area,” Porter said.

Ultimately, the sheriff believes Berry “wants to get away from people,” he said.

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CNN’s Maria Aguilar Prieto contributed to this report.