Dead or on the run?

State police say they don't know the status of Christopher Dale Dublin.

Last week they suspected the 52-year-old Slippery Rock Township man may no longer be alive. Deeming Dublin “missing and endangered,” they searched state gamelands in Cherry Township, wondering if they would find his remains.

But this week, they admit they have not ruled out that he might be on the lam — ahead of the law.

District Judge Bill O'Donnell shortly after 10 a.m. Monday signed a felony arrest warrant for Dublin on child pornography charges.

“We don't know if he absconded or if he harmed himself,” said police Cpl. Tim Morando.

There is another warrant out for Dublin, according to court records, who is behind on court-ordered spousal support payments to his wife of 23 years.

The couple, who have an adult son, is separated and going through a divorce that she filed in June 2018 — soon after a police interview during which investigators allege he admitted to downloading child pornography for nearly two decades.

Police remain tight-lipped about their probe.

“It's an open investigation,” Morando said. He refused to reveal any findings and would not speculate on the latest working theories police have developed.

Dublin's family Monday declined to comment about the missing person's case or the criminal charges.

Police said Dublin was last seen about 1 p.m. Feb. 4 at his home in Slippery Rock Township. He left his family a letter and apparently turned off his cell phone.

Investigators found his 2004 Chevrolet Trailblazer about 9:30 a.m. Feb. 6 in a parking area along Branchton Road on Pennsylvania Game Commission property near Route 308 in Cherry Township.

A search was conducted in dense woods using a tracking dog but nothing was found.

Two primary strip mine ponds caught the attention of police searchers.

Later that day, the Unionville Volunteer Fire Department's dive team and members of Butler County's Water Rescue Team 300 were called in.

But no divers entered the water, said Nathan Wulff, Unionville fire chief, after it was determined conditions were too hazardous for a dive. Wulff said the surface was encrusted in ice and submerged trees were frozen in the ice.

Water search specialists walked the perimeter of the water, but could not find evidence of an entry point.

An aerial search of the same area using a state police helicopter was made Friday but to no avail.

On Saturday, a ground search of the site was conducted by friends and family of Dublin, police said. But nothing reportedly turned up.

Police on Monday moved forward on the criminal case against Dublin, charging him with 52 felony counts related to child pornography.

An online investigation Dec. 5, 2017, by the Northwest Computer Crime Task Force ensnared him, police said.

The investigation sought to identify those sharing and possessing child pornography using the BitTorrent file-sharing network, according to court documents.

A trooper with the task force traced the IP address of a sexually explicit video to Dublin's former marital home in Franklin Township. The video, according to court documents, depicted a man having sex with two naked prepubescent girls

Task force officers on March 16, 2018, served a search warrant at the home. When officers entered, they saw Dublin walk out of the bedroom. He made the statement, “I know why you are here,” a police affidavit said.

He was subsequently taken for a formal interview.

“Dublin advised that he knew that the police would be coming to his house at some point,” the affidavit said, “because he downloads child pornography.”

Police said he admitted that he had been downloading child pornography for nearly 20 years.

“Dublin advised that he collects child pornography because it is rare,” the affidavit said, “and does not collect it for sexual gratification.”

Investigators combed the defendant's devices for evidence and turned up “over one thousand photos of child pornography,” documents said.

Morando said the forensic examination of those devices is why, in part, it took so long before charges were filed.

He is charged with one count each of disseminating child pornography and criminal use of a communication facility, and 50 counts of possessing child pornography.

Butler County court records showed Dublin's wife, Christina Dublin, filed for divorce June 1, 2018. The couple married July 1, 1995, and separated March 16, 2018.

It was his second marriage; her first.

The court on April 25, 2018, issued a spousal support order, requiring Dublin to pay $779 a month to his wife.

Before the support order was imposed but after the couple had separated, Dublin quit his longtime job at AK Steel.

Christina Dublin's attorney, Susan Lope, in the divorce action wrote that because of his work career at AK Steel, Dublin “is believed to have significant retirement assets.”

A sizable portion of that, she noted, were “marital assets.”

Fearing that Dublin had “unilaterally invaded” those assets, Lope subsequently secured a court order that advised neither party remove or dispose of marital property.

The order also required Dublin and his estranged wife to file a detailed accounting of what marital assets either had taken as his or her own.

Court records showed that Judge William Shaffer on Feb. 5 issued a domestic relations bench warrant for Dublin, alleging that he owed back spousal support. Authorities said he is in arrears of $2,334.36.

Lope declined to comment Monday.

Dublin apparently does not have an attorney for the divorce proceedings.