I’ve had several of my law enforcement sources in the New River Valley express concerns about the area’s pre-trial services home electronic monitoring program.

They wonder why it took so long to be notified after investigators say Sam Peak cut his device off his ankle last Saturday night.

The exact time it was tampered with appears to be 7:58 p.m., according to the Wythe County sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office says Peak went on to terrorize a man with a gun about 12 hours later, sparking a county wide manhunt.

Peak was arrested without incident later on at a Wytheville motel.

The sheriff’s office, Wytheville police, the ATF, and the U.S. Marshal’s Office all worked to find him.

Investigators say Peak pointed the gun at a man while inside a home he was court-ordered not to be in.

New River Community Corrections director, Peggy Cooper, told me her on-call officer was never notified there was a problem with Peak’s monitoring device Saturday night.

Cooper said, typically, the device triggers an alarm once its either tampered with, or the person wearing it ventures far enough away from his or her home.

In this case Cooper said it appears Peak left his home and then cut the device off his ankle.

My sources say Peak’s mother indeed confirmed that information to investigators.

My law enforcement contacts are concerned because it essentially gave Peak a 12 hour head start.

Cooper said, once an alert is triggered by the ankle bracelet, the signal notifies the New River Valley Regional Jail, which in turn is supposed to notify her office.

I waited for more than two hours at the NRV Regional Jail this afternoon to see if I could get its side of the story.

I got there at around 12:30 and left right before 3 p.m.

To be fair, they were very busy today since Peak tried to commit suicide in his cell last night.

The jail’s superintendent, Gerald McPeak, emailed me at 4:30 apologizing for not being able to talk to me at the jail, explaining he missed me by a few minutes.

He said he couldn’t comment on much since it’s an ongoing investigation.

I wanted to know what exactly what happened with Peak’s bracelet notification; why was the on-call community corrections officer never notified of the alert on Peak’s device?  Did the jail even get the alert?

I can’t say for sure McPeak knew exactly the questions I wanted to ask him but I can tell you that at least one member of his supervisory staff did.

I’m not saying the jail made it a point to avoid me.

I would’ve liked somebody to come out of the administration office at some point during my two hour wait and explain to me, face-to-face, the delay.

You can be sure I’ll be keeping up with this one since some of my law enforcement contacts who worked hard to find Peak tell me something just doesn’t add up.