UPDATE: Frein has been captured. Read more about it here: http://www.riverreporter.com/content/14/2014/10/30/accused-cop-killer-frein-captured

BLOOMING GROVE, PA — As the search for accused cop killer Eric Frein heads toward week seven, the Pennsylvania State Police have employed a new piece of equipment to aid in the search—a large balloon, which they have borrowed from the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Trooper Thomas Kelly said it is a large Mylar balloon, similar to a weather balloon, tethered to a trailer base as it floats 500 feet high, and it transmits video footage or still pictures back to the ground. It is much cheaper to operate than a helicopter and can remain in the air for up to three days at a time.

An article in the Columbus Dispatch in Ohio said the balloon, which is referred to as a “blimp in a box,” cost $180,000. The article said the camera on the balloon can see a person up to three miles away.

Kelly said this is an experimental device and one of many being used in the manhunt for Frein.

In other developments in the search, police are checking out blood from a stain that a woman found near a chicken coop in her back yard. Joyce Aleckna found the blood on October 25, and called police. Authorities came and took a sample for testing.

Police have been searching for Frein since September 12, when he allegedly shot two Pennsylvania State Police troopers in what police have called an unprovoked and cowardly attack that killed one trooper and seriously injured the other.

Police say that he has been spotted several times during the search, but searchers were never close enough to get near him.