It’s been nearly a month since the armed robbery of Wells Fargo Bank in Clinton, and while police have yet to make an arrest detectives say they are making progress.

The Island County Sheriff’s Office confirmed they have established three “people of interest.” The case is still an ongoing investigation, however, and department officials declined to release their identities.

“We’re still working on leads that may indicate a suspect, but I’m not willing to name anyone now,” Sheriff Mark Brown said.

Wells Fargo was robbed at gunpoint Sept. 8. The suspect, wearing a mask, sunglasses and a camouflage jacket, stole an unreleased sum of cash and made his getaway in a bank employee’s car.

The robbery was preceded by what police believe was a phony 9-1-1 call. A man’s voice reported the possible shooting of a woman in the Freeland area. As police responded, the bank was hit.

Detective Ed Wallace, spokesman for the Island County Sheriff’s Office, said tracing the call was largely a dead end. The bogus report was made on a “warm line,” which is a phone without a service provider but one still capable of making a 9-1-1 emergency call. Also, the phone was not GPS capable so the origin of the call could only be tracked to within a 2-mile radius of a Clinton cell tower — a total area of 4 miles.

Detectives may have caught a break, however, with a recording of the call that was released online and to the South Whidbey Record. According to the Sept. 10 police blotter, a written log of 9-1-1 calls, the voice was identified as that of Christian Shorey by four members of his immediate family. Each called in to report that they believed they recognized the voice and wanted to notify police; at least one also said they believed a surveillance photo of the masked robber appeared to be Shorey.

Shorey is currently wanted on a $10,000 felony warrant for unrelated charges of Burglary in the 2nd Degree and failure to appear in court.

In a Thursday interview with the South Whidbey Record, Shorey’s father, Matt Shorey, said the family has since been interviewed by both sheriff’s deputies and federal marshals. He emphasized that while no conclusions can be drawn from the surveillance photo, he feels certain the voice belongs to his son.

“You can’t say it was him in the camouflage jacket, but the voice? Definitely,” Matt Shorey said.

“That was our son,” he said.

When you live with someone for that long, he added, you get to know the way they talk, the way they put words together, their inflections.

Matt Shorey said his son’s whereabouts are unknown, and speculated that he may no longer be on the island. However, he added that despite being wanted by police he doesn’t appear to be hiding out completely, as he updated his Facebook page this week.

“I hate to say it, but he’s making asses out of the sheriffs,” Matt Shorey said.

Wallace declined to say whether Shorey is a person of interest or a suspect in the robbery. Wallace said department policy is to refrain from doing either in criminal cases until they can establish probable cause or if there is any fear that doing so would drive them into hiding.

Wallace said he couldn’t be sure that Shorey, or the other two people of interest, aren’t already aware that police are considering their alleged involvement in the robbery, but that it was a department procedure.

“I can’t say they don’t know; we’ve generated a lot of attention from our looking,” he said.

The police blotter included at least one other tip concerning the robber’s identity — a person other than Christian Shorey — but it was a single anonymous tipster and the person is not known to be wanted.

Wallace said the sheriff’s office has not been idle, that detectives are “actively seeking” people of interest in the case. Anyone with information is urged to call the Island County Sheriff’s Office via the ICOM dispatch center at 360-679-9567.

Matt Shorey said the family is worried about Shorey and that if this goes on any longer that he or someone else will get hurt.

“He’s our son; we love him but we can’t condone what he’s doing, not at all,” he said.