Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 11, 1995 TAG: 9510110090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HYDER, ARIZ. LENGTH: Medium
On a track 55 miles away in downtown Phoenix, authorities found a device capable of derailing a train. The FBI refused to discount the possibility it was a second sabotage attempt.
The FBI expanded its painstaking search for evidence to a mile-square area surrounding the gulch where the Sunset Limited lurched off a damaged track, and asked the public for help finding the culprit.
The train jumped the tracks at the damaged section early Monday and toppled 30 feet from a bridge, killing a crew member and injuring at least 78 people.
A letter found at the scene mentioned federal raids on right-wing extremists at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho. It was signed ``Sons of Gestapo,'' raising fears the sabotage was the work of anti-government extremists.
A passenger who saw one version of the note said Tuesday that it didn't specifically claim responsibility for the derailment, was written in a sort of verse and gave the impression the writer ``wanted to be some sort of poetic martyr.''
``It was a lot of gibberish. It started out with something about women and children praying as it gets dark, then it talked about how they didn't have any electricity,'' said Michelle Cruz, a psychiatric nurse from Sacramento, Calif., who saw the letter about 8 to 10 feet from the coach, held down by a rock. The FBI was mentioned along with other government agencies she couldn't recall.
There apparently are several versions of the letter, said Gov. Fife Symington, who said he has read one version. He wouldn't talk about what it said, except to say he was told there were multiple versions that were ``comparable in terms of content.''
FBI officials held a brief news conference six miles from the scene Tuesday, but offered little insight into the investigation. called Operation Splitrail, refusing to comment about the letter.
Acting on a tip from a trucker who heard a noise and saw two men suspicious-acting around a Southern Pacific track in downtown Phoenix, police Tuesday recovered a device used in rail yards that can derail a train.
The so-called derailer - two heavy pieces of metal with a hinge between - is normally used to get trains back on the rails, but could have caused a derailment if a train had come by, said Mike Furtney, spokesman for Southern Pacific Railroad in San Francisco.
``It wouldn't absolutely derail a train, but I'm glad we found it before we found out if it would have worked,'' Furtney said.
The FBI was looking into the matter and wouldn't rule out the possibility that it was related to the derailment, said agent Al Davidson.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB