A rapist’s bond and release from jail have been revoked after authorities caught him allegedly trying to flee to Arizona.

Michael Kullberg, 27, was booked into the Flathead Detention Center on Friday.

According to court documents, Flathead County sheriff’s deputies were called to the Brian’s 76 store in Evergreen after an employee said that a man and woman trying to buy a bus ticket were behaving suspiciously.

Investigators determined that a couple allegedly tried to purchase bus tickets under a different name to give to Kullberg and his wife so that they could flee to Phoenix.

Kullberg’s wife allegedly confessed to trying to get the tickets for her and the children, but told a deputy that she and the children were trying to go to Hawaii since Kullberg is likely to be sent back to prison for nine years. The explanation came after she originally denied purchasing any tickets.

Kullberg is due back in court on Thursday, when Flathead District Judge Heidi Ulbricht will determine whether or not his parole should be revoked.

Kullberg was released from prison in 2014 and went to Hawaii.

He ended up back in Montana after Hawaii officials kicked him out for being convicted of a DUI and not completing required sex offender treatment. Kullberg arrived in Lincoln County in January 2015 and since then has been accused of racking up numerous violations of his probation, including disorderly conduct, associating with other probationers, drinking and driving, not maintaining employment as required and driving without a license on numerous occasions.

“He has been argumentative and confrontive with his supervising officer, therapists, Child Protective Services personnel and law enforcement,” Probation and Parole Officer Darrell Vanderhoef of Libby wrote in a petition to revoke.

Authorities allegedly tried minor sanctions such as jail time and a higher level of supervision — to no avail.

Kullberg is serving the 13-year suspended portion of a 20-year sentence handed down in Flathead District Court in 2005 for raping a teenager.

When Kullberg originally was sentenced, Flathead District Judge Stewart Stadler noted that the prognosis for Kullberg’s readjustment to society was “pretty bleak” based on a pre-sentence investigation and sex offender evaluation.

One evaluator found a 100-percent probability that Kullberg would commit another violent sexual crime within 10 years, though no new sex crimes have been documented in the decade since the sentencing.

Years before the conviction, Kullberg was the subject of national media attention in 1995 when he, then age 6, and a 13-year-old were charged for an arson fire that caused $1 million in damage to a Lakeside marina. The arson charge was dropped against Kullberg.

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