Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 28, 1995 TAG: 9504280068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: OKLAHOMA CITY LENGTH: Long
Federal Magistrate Ronald Howland also ordered McVeigh held without bail.
The decision came after four hours of testimony from Special Agent John Hersley in which he described accounts of several witnesses, including one man who saw McVeigh's yellow Mercury speeding away from a parking lot near the bombed building with McVeigh and a passenger.
Hersley said at the hearing that his ``primary responsibility is to find the other subject to prevent another bomb from going off.''
The death toll in the nation's largest terror attack, meanwhile, passed a grim milestone: More than 100 bodies now have been found in the rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
Another witness, a meter maid, told the FBI she saw the defendant driving a Ryder truck toward her in the direction of the building shortly before the blast. The truck was moving slowly enough that she thought the driver was going to stop and ask directions.
She described only one occupant in the truck, but other witnesses said there were two.
Other witnesses said they had seen McVeigh in the area a few days before the bombing. One, who claimed to have seen McVeigh on April 13, 17 and 18, made a positive identification of him in a lineup Saturday.
In his ruling, Rowland said: ``The court finds an indelible trail of evidence that starts in Junction City and ends up at the front door of the Murrah building.'' Junction City, Kan., is where McVeigh rented the truck that authorities believe carried the bomb to Oklahoma City.
McVeigh followed the proceedings intently, showing little emotion but chuckling a few times during light-hearted moments. He seemed most interested when one of his attorneys showed the court a large collection of newspaper headlines about the case.
The Saturday lineup was held for four witnesses. One positively identified McVeigh, one picked out two people including McVeigh, a third could not ID anyone and a fourth person initially said he did not recognize him but later said, ``Yes, that was him, I hesitated because he was staring at me,'' Hersley said.
An indictment must be filed within 30 days of McVeigh's first court appearance, which was last Friday night. No further hearings were immediately scheduled.
Susan Otto, one of McVeigh's defense lawyers, disputed whether the witness accounts proved McVeigh was responsible for the bombing.
``None of these witnesses have said they saw Mr. McVeigh detonate the bomb. That's all there is to it,'' Otto said.
His other lawyer, John Coyle, tried to point out that some witness accounts placing McVeigh in Oklahoma City at various times before the bombing contradicted other witnesses who placed him elsewhere, including Junction City.
``I thought Mr. McVeigh was at the Dreamland Motel when these witnesses placed him in downtown Oklahoma City,'' Coyle said.
Both Otto and Coyle have sought to withdraw from the case. The judge ordered them for now to continue, and also denied a bid for a change of venue.
Otto bolstered her plea to be let out of the case by reading a list of 10 people she knew who were killed in the blast and an 11th who still was missing. Coyle also has said he knew someone killed in the blast.
``We heard it, we smelled it. We lived through it,'' Otto said.
The death toll rose to 110 with the discovery of 11 more bodies, eight of them in ``the pit'' of the pancaked floors above the day-care center and Social Security offices. All were adults.
``We've gone through most of the day-care [center] at this point,'' said Fire Chief Gary Marrs. ``The Social Security [area] is going to be harder to determine. I think we've hit spots of both areas. It seems to be going faster the lower we go,'' Marrs said. He said searchers had reduced the rubble pile at the front of the pit from three stories high to about the height of one story.
Fifteen of the dead identified so far have been children, said Ray Blakeney, spokesman for the state medical examiner's office. Ninety people were believed missing, including four children from the day-care center and a fifth who was in the Social Security office.
Lt. Joe Beale of the Dade County, Fla., Fire Rescue Squad said he has stopped giving his canine partner, Brandee, the command to sniff out live people.
When McVeigh, the only person yet charged in the bombing, was stopped by a state trooper on April 19, 90 minutes after the blast, his yellow Mercury Marquis was missing a license plate. That plate has not been found, said FBI Special Agent Weldon Kennedy, who is in charge of the investigation.
A Washington law enforcement source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators know ``that plate was on a vehicle in Oklahoma City before the blast.''
Why would it be useful now? ``It might be on the ground,'' and the location might help pinpoint an escape route, the official said. ``Or it might be on another vehicle,'' the official said, suggesting that it might have been switched to an escape vehicle used by Doe No. 2. The source said there has been no reliable sighting of Doe No. 2 since the explosion.
by CNB