Authorities believe a man accused of stabbing 35-year-old Wade Allen Rautio to death last month also destroyed evidence that linked him to the crime.

Robert Matthew Wittal, 25, was charged with felony deliberate homicide in Rautio’s death. Wittal appeared in Flathead County Justice Court on Wednesday afternoon. His bail was set at $500,000. He is set to be arraigned on June 30 at 8:30 a.m.

According to court documents, multiple witnesses told investigators on Monday that they saw Wittal stab Rautio to death near Echo Lake sometime between May 15 and May 31. One witness reported watching Wittal then burn his cellphone and the clothes he was wearing at the time of the crime in a wood stove at a home on South Cedar Drive in Evergreen.

The body with multiple stab wounds was found Monday under a log in Brown Creek east of the Flathead Valley.

The witnesses allegedly told Flathead County sheriff’s deputies that they had seen Wittal stab Rautio multiple times until he died.

Authorities also have arrested Melisa Crone, 29, Christopher Hansen, 28, and David Vincent Toman, 20, in connection with the homicide, but no charges had officially been filed as of Thursday afternoon.

Wittal had been released on bail earlier in May after being charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of dangerous drugs. He allegedly was stopped on an out-of-state warrant at a bar in December and had a gun in his waistband and a baggie of meth in his pocket. Wittal allegedly did not have a concealed weapons permit.

Hansen is on probation for a felony theft conviction handed down in Flathead District Court in 2013. Hansen received a five-year commitment to the Department of Corrections.

According to court documents, Hansen had been staying with someone who gave him shelter because he was homeless and jobless. The homeowner reported Hansen to police after he noticed that Hansen kept odd hours and had left some stolen property at his home.

Items worth more than $3,670, including tools and firearms, had been stolen from a home in Marion.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.