Oklahoma Bomb Jarred License Plate -- Missing Id From Mcveigh Car Was Found Near Explosion Site
A license plate was apparently blown off the car of Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh less than a mile from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, federal officials said yesterday.
The plate is a key piece of evidence helping investigators determine how attackers ignited the bomb and got away, the officials said.
In the week after the bombing, federal investigators made a public plea for help in finding the license plate, amid speculation that it could have been blown off the car or was switched to a getaway car.
No elaboration on find
The officials declined to elaborate on how the plate was recovered. Explosives experts from the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have theorized that whoever ignited the massive bomb had only two minutes and 12 seconds to get away before it exploded.
They believe that the license plate was blown off McVeigh's Mercury Marquis by the impact of the explosion, federal officials said.
McVeigh was arrested near Perry, Okla., less than 90 minutes after the bombing. An Oklahoma State trooper stopped him for driving without a license plate.
More charges expected
Authorities have charged two of McVeigh's associates - brothers Terry and James Nichols - with federal explosives violations. Officials have expressed confidence they will charge Terry Nichols with complicity in the bombing but are less sure about James Nichols.
Authorities are also seeking a possible accomplice known as John Doe No. 2, believed to have been with McVeigh when he rented a Ryder truck used in the bombing.
Some investigators, however, say they have grown skeptical about the elusive suspect, who has only been positively identified at the truck rental agency.
"They may have him confused with Terry Nichols," one official said last week. "You never get a sighting that has Terry Nichols and John Doe No. 2 at the same time."
He doesn't resemble sketch
When Nichols was arrested just two days after the April 19 bombing of the federal building, many people thought the second prime suspect had been found.
But Nichols, an Army friend of McVeigh, bears little resemblance to an FBI sketch compiled from a witness account.
FBI agents have reportedly found a receipt for a ton of fertilizer in Nichols' Kansas home, and Time magazine reported today that the fertilizer salesman picked Nichols out of a lineup.
The bomb that killed 167 and destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was made of fuel oil and fertilizer.
Las Vegas: Terry Nichols' ex-wife told the syndicated TV program "American Journal" that Nichols gave her a package in November 1994 and told her to open it if he failed to return after 50 days.
Lana Padilla said she opened the package the next morning, finding letters for her and McVeigh.
In the letter to McVeigh, which Padilla said she never delivered, Nichols asked him to clean out a storage unit. The storage locker contained thousands of dollars in gold and silver bullion, ski masks, pipes and survival gear, Padilla said.
Federal prosecutors have until the end of May to seek an indictment of McVeigh and to decide whether to pursue additional charges against the Nichols brothers.
Kingman, Ariz. Also today, authorities said they had ruled out any connection between a Feb. 21 blast that blew the windows out of a house and the Oklahoma City bombing.
Arson warrants were issued last week for two local men whose names were not released, Mohave County sheriff's spokeswoman Tonya Dowe said.