State Police walk Anthony G. Bechand, center, out of the Ray Brook Barracks Friday afternoon. Bechand, 53, of Cohoes, was arrested in connection with the Sept. 13 stabbing death of his girlfriend, following a 12-day manhunt. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

PAUL SMITHS — Roger Brubaker was working in his home office on Easy Street Friday morning when he looked out his window and saw a homicide suspect walking down the street.

Anthony G. Bechand, 53, has been the subject of a 12-day manhunt across the Brighton-Paul Smiths area. He is suspected by police of the murder of his girlfriend, Amanda Margaret “Mandee” Rodriguez, 41, who was killed in her Cohoes home on Sept. 13.

Bechand’s truck was found the next day in Brighton, three miles away from Easy Street.

Police believe he ran out of gas and had been living in the woods over the past days.

The area has been on high alert and photos of Bechand have been spread around online and in print.

“I saw his goatee and was just like, ‘man, that looks a lot like that guy I’ve been seeing in the news,'” Brubaker said.

He said Bechand looked “wet,” “miserable” and “desperate,” was wearing camouflage pants, a blue short-sleeved t-shirt, a camo beanie hat and was carrying a shoulder bag. Brubaker said he did not look injured. Waldin said the blood in the truck was likely from a “superficial injury.”

Waldin said he did not hear anything about Bechand having a weapon when he was apprehended.

Waldin said he will be booked in Albany County Jail later today.

Brubaker said Bechand was scoping out his neighbor’s vegetable garden and trying to knock apples out of the trees.

“This is weird,” he thought.

He second-guessed himself for a second.

“I don’t want to call the cops on somebody just to have them hassle some guy who’s trying to walk somewhere,” he said. “Then, the more I thought about it, I was like, ‘I don’t know man, he looks a lot like that guy.'”

Bechand was walking down Easy Street, toward Paul Smith’s College. Brubaker lost sight of him near Jones Pond Road by the Brighton Town Hall.

The police response took five minutes. He saw a state police cruiser pass with its lights on. He was curious to see the arrest, but felt “that’s not my job.”

Robin Gay was on her way to work in Malone, driving down Easy Street, when she saw a “disheveled” man in a ripped shirt coming out of the woods near the bottom of the hill, eating an apple.

“Um, that looks like the guy,” she thought to herself.

She pulled around and drove by him again to double-check. She parked in the town hall lot to pull up a picture of him on Facebook, and he walked by her.

She called the police, just minutes after Brubaker had called.

There had been no confirmed sightings or solid leads on Bechand’s whereabouts throughout the manhunt.

“There was zero,” Waldin said, “there was literally nothing.”

Waldin said the press conference was a great idea to refresh vigilance for keeping an eye out for Bechand.

“It is so rare and difficult nowadays for somebody to disappear the way he did,” Waldin said.

Police found no phone or financial records from Bechand during the 12-day manhunt and he was not caught on any camera footage the police found.

Gay did not believe Bechand was still in the area, 12 days into the manhunt.

“There’s no way that he would be walking on the main highway,” Gay thought.

But that was just what happened.

“It just goes to show that if you do see something, you should say something,” Gay said.

She’s glad she called in the sighting instead of just ignoring it.

She’s also glad he was found, for the sake of Rodriguez’s family and for the sake of the community.

Brubaker said he’s still shook up.

“It’s been hard to think of anything else all day,” he said.

But he’s glad he was able to help police catch Bechand.

Having the police all over the neighborhood, searching his shed and garage for a homicide suspect, scared him and his wife. He walks his dog all the time and has always thought about it.

He hopes it gives the family of the victim some peace.

Waldin said the media and the public’s concentration had been on Bechand and finding him, rightfully so. But he hopes that people will focus similar energy on the victim and supporting her family through their loss.

Rodriguez was born in Malone and worked for a short time at Paul Smith’s College.

To read more about her, the manhunt and the investigation, go to tinyurl.com/5w2rmahx.