ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 24, 1996 TAG: 9602270084
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: OKLAHOMA CITY
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
The leg found clad in a military boot in the rubble of the Oklahoma bombing belongs to a previously identified victim, meaning the death toll may have to be lowered to 168, the medical examiner reported Friday.
The FBI used DNA and footprints to match the leg to 21-year-old Air Force Airman Lakesha Levy, said Dr. Fred Jordan, the state medical examiner. That means that Levy was buried with the wrong left leg.
The discovery of the severed leg after the bombed-out federal building was demolished had led defense lawyers to speculate it may have belonged to ``the real bomber'' in the April 19 attack.
Now, Jordan's admission that his office erred in its identification of some remains is likely to give lawyers for Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols ammunition against the prosecution's case.
McVeigh's lawyer, Stephen Jones, said the government's forensic evidence ``appears to be moving in different directions like a weather vane in an Oklahoma stormy spring.''
Jordan said his staff apparently made mistakes in identifying Levy's remains, including burying the wrong leg with her.
LENGTH: Short : 32 linesby CNB