MrRING
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030601/ap_on_re_us/eric_rudolph&cid=519&ncid=716
Agents Comb Woods in Bomb Suspect Probe
MURPHY, N.C. - With suspected Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph finally in custody, federal agents in camouflage headed into the rural North Carolina woods Sunday to begin retracing his steps and determine whether he had help evading authorities during the five years he lived on the run.
Aside from a stubbly beard, Rudolph was clean, healthy and casually dressed when he was caught early Saturday by a rookie police officer who spotted him scavenging for food behind a grocery store.
"He didn't look like he'd been living in the woods," said Murphy Police Officer Charles Kilby. His mustache was neatly trimmed, and there was little difference between the Rudolph who was caught and the one pictured on wanted posters issued at the beginning of the manhunt in 1998, he said.
Rudolph, a 36-year-old former soldier and survivalist, is accused of the July 27, 1996, bombing at Atlanta's downtown Olympic Park that killed a woman, wounded 111 others and stunned a world focused on the fanfare of the 25th modern Summer Olympics.
He also is a suspect in a bombing at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala., that killed a police officer, and bombings outside a gay nightclub and an office building in Atlanta that contained an abortion clinic.
In all, two people were killed and about 150 were injured.
Rudolph is thought to be a follower of the white supremacist Christian Identity religion that is anti-abortion, anti-gay and anti-Semitic. Some of the bombs were followed by messages signed "Army of God."
During a search across 550,000 acres of Appalachian wilderness that at one time involved 200 agents, Rudolph became an almost a mythic figure. Many in the region mocked the government's inability to root him out. He inspired two country-western songs and a top-selling T-shirt bore the words "Run Rudolph Run." A $1 million reward offer from the government went unclaimed.
"My heart aches for him. What he did was wrong, I know, but I understand where he was coming from," said Sarah Greenfield, 63, of nearby Marble. "People around here, they take care of their own. You can't put a price on a man's head, and I don't know anybody who would have given him up, even for a million dollars."
Saturday morning, it wasn't the FBI, but a rookie police officer from the small town of Murphy who spotted Rudolph behind the grocery and arrested him. Patrolman Jeff Postell, 21, came around the back of the Save-A-Lot with his patrol car lights off when he saw the man crouched behind the store. Another officer later recognized the man as Rudolph.
"I don't really deserve any credit," Postell later said. "I think I put a lot of people's feelings at ease."
With Rudolph in custody, authorities now have access to clean DNA samples that could be used to more closely link him to evidence collected in the case, Swecker said.
Agents Comb Woods in Bomb Suspect Probe
MURPHY, N.C. - With suspected Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph finally in custody, federal agents in camouflage headed into the rural North Carolina woods Sunday to begin retracing his steps and determine whether he had help evading authorities during the five years he lived on the run.
Aside from a stubbly beard, Rudolph was clean, healthy and casually dressed when he was caught early Saturday by a rookie police officer who spotted him scavenging for food behind a grocery store.
"He didn't look like he'd been living in the woods," said Murphy Police Officer Charles Kilby. His mustache was neatly trimmed, and there was little difference between the Rudolph who was caught and the one pictured on wanted posters issued at the beginning of the manhunt in 1998, he said.
Rudolph, a 36-year-old former soldier and survivalist, is accused of the July 27, 1996, bombing at Atlanta's downtown Olympic Park that killed a woman, wounded 111 others and stunned a world focused on the fanfare of the 25th modern Summer Olympics.
He also is a suspect in a bombing at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala., that killed a police officer, and bombings outside a gay nightclub and an office building in Atlanta that contained an abortion clinic.
In all, two people were killed and about 150 were injured.
Rudolph is thought to be a follower of the white supremacist Christian Identity religion that is anti-abortion, anti-gay and anti-Semitic. Some of the bombs were followed by messages signed "Army of God."
During a search across 550,000 acres of Appalachian wilderness that at one time involved 200 agents, Rudolph became an almost a mythic figure. Many in the region mocked the government's inability to root him out. He inspired two country-western songs and a top-selling T-shirt bore the words "Run Rudolph Run." A $1 million reward offer from the government went unclaimed.
"My heart aches for him. What he did was wrong, I know, but I understand where he was coming from," said Sarah Greenfield, 63, of nearby Marble. "People around here, they take care of their own. You can't put a price on a man's head, and I don't know anybody who would have given him up, even for a million dollars."
Saturday morning, it wasn't the FBI, but a rookie police officer from the small town of Murphy who spotted Rudolph behind the grocery and arrested him. Patrolman Jeff Postell, 21, came around the back of the Save-A-Lot with his patrol car lights off when he saw the man crouched behind the store. Another officer later recognized the man as Rudolph.
"I don't really deserve any credit," Postell later said. "I think I put a lot of people's feelings at ease."
With Rudolph in custody, authorities now have access to clean DNA samples that could be used to more closely link him to evidence collected in the case, Swecker said.