MISSOULA – The FBI is investigating whether a bank robbery in St. Regis earlier this week is linked to three other bank holdups and a truck stop robbery in western Montana dating back to September 2009.
“We believe the same individual may have committed all of the robberies,” FBI spokeswoman Debbie Bertram said Thursday.
In all cases, the suspect fled on a motorcycle, all-terrain vehicle or dirt bike, she said.
Witnesses said a “thin and tiny” man wearing a motorcycle helmet robbed the Mullan Trail Bank in St. Regis Tuesday afternoon.
A man wearing a motorcycle helmet also robbed the First Interstate Bank in Bigfork last September and a Glacier Bank branch in Lakeside last November. The First Valley Bank in Seeley Lake was robbed in April by a man who fled on an ATV.
A similar suspect robbed Muralt’s Truck Stop near Missoula in September 2009, Bertram said.
She would not say how much money the robber got away with.
“What we hope for is that someone in the public recognizes the individual from a photograph or from the description, and then is able to phone in a tip,” Bertram said.
The suspect is a white man between 5 feet, 2 inches and 5 feet, 6 inches tall.