McVeigh’s Trail Combed for Clues : Bombing: Investigators search motel rooms used by suspect in Kingman, Ariz. More pieces of rental truck are found in blast rubble. Death toll rises to 124.

Federal investigators in Kingman, Ariz., on Saturday sifted through the past of suspect Timothy J. McVeigh, while workers found additional parts of the truck that carried nearly 5,000 pounds of explosives to the front steps of the federal building here.

Rescue workers, meantime, acknowledged little hope of finding anyone alive in the rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The death toll rose to 124, including 15 children. More than 60 people are believed missing.

Assistant Oklahoma City Fire Chief Jon Hansen said the work at the shattered structure continues to be officially called a search-and-rescue effort but acknowledged that time has probably run out for happy endings.

“Realistically, we know that the possibilities of a survivor being in there would be a total miracle,” Hansen said. “Yet in the back of our minds, miracles happen.”

However, he said, “a time will come” when workers will begin the awesome task of tearing the building down without looking further for survivors or bodies.

“But hopefully that’s a ways away yet,” he said.

In addition to pulling twisted children’s wagons and tricycles from the wreckage, Nathan Pyle of the Oklahoma City bomb squad said investigators are “finding anything from golf-ball-size pieces to dollar-size pieces to half the frame” of the vehicle that housed the explosive. All are turned over to the FBI for reconstruction efforts, he said.

Rescuers reported that they had found three more bodies in the rubble but were unable to reach them as the painstaking rescue work continued. Oklahoma Medical Examiner Ray Blakeney predicted that it will take four to five more days before all remaining bodies are located.

Rescue operations have been slowed by mounting concerns about the safety of the building, as rubble that has propped up sagging structures has been cleared. On Saturday, 125 rescuers toiled to remove debris and human remains, down from as many as 250 rescue workers earlier this week.

Early Saturday, firefighters briefly stopped work for a moment of silence when they discovered the body of the sister of an Oklahoma City firefighter.

“This one was a lot more personal for us,” Hansen said. He would not identify the woman.

Meanwhile, federal investigators focused new attention on the small Arizona town of Kingman, where McVeigh appears to have lived on and off since 1993. Authorities believe that Kingman served as the base for planning what became the most deadly terrorist attack in the United States. Investigators combed through a room at the Imperial Motel in Kingman, which McVeigh occupied for 12 days between March 31 and April 12.

And across the street at the Hilltop Motel, where McVeigh stayed in February, investigators also searched for clues to the crime.

In Kingman and in towns such as Junction City, Kan., near Ft. Riley, where McVeigh served in the Army, investigators are trying to piece together answers to several questions, including the identity of the mysterious “John Doe No. 2,” who is believed to have been with McVeigh at the time of the bombing. They also want to know where McVeigh obtained his money.

They appeared little closer to having found the answer to their first question on Saturday, although Assistant Atty. Gen. Jamie Gorelick, speaking Saturday on CNN’s “Inside Politics Weekend Edition,” declared that the bureau has collected “some very good leads.”

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A John Doe No. 2 look-alike was detained in Santa Monica on Friday, but authorities said Saturday that they do not believe the man was involved in the Oklahoma City tragedy. The man, who was not identified, was interviewed by the FBI, Santa Monica police said. He is being held on other charges.

While thousands of leads and sightings continue to be reported to the FBI, officials offered no evidence they were closing in on the second suspect.

Investigators meanwhile continued to seek the source of McVeigh’s money.

McVeigh, who held odd jobs for much of his time in Kingman, frequently was seen with large wads of cash, and investigators estimated the approximate cost of producing the bomb that shattered the Oklahoma City federal building to be about $5,000.

Investigators have sought records from the Defense Logistics Agency, which disposes of surplus military equipment, including some explosive materials, to see if McVeigh or his friends--brothers James D. Nichols of Decker, Mich., and Terry Lynn Nichols of Herington, Kan.--were among their regular bidders. Terry Nichols’ attorney has said his client sold military equipment at gun shows. McVeigh also appears to have been a regular attendee, and possibly a vendor, at gun shows.

In addition, FBI agents are investigating whether those responsible for the Oklahoma explosion may have financed their activities with the proceeds of a bank-robbing spree across the Midwest.

Gorelick said Saturday that the scope of the investigation now extends across four states--Arizona, Michigan, Oklahoma and Florida. This marked the first time that Florida, where many armed militia groups operate, has been linked to the case.

At the FBI’s training facility in Quantico, Va., behavioral experts are trying to unravel a central mystery in the case: Does McVeigh--the single suspect so far charged with the bombing--have the psychological profile of a criminal mastermind, or is he merely a foot soldier in a bombing planned by others?

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Saturday’s recovery work in Oklahoma City, at least, is expected to provide more clues.

A source familiar with the investigation said FBI experts plan to bring the recovered remnants of the exploded vehicle back to Washington, where they will reconstruct the truck and analyze the pattern of its destruction in the controlled conditions of a laboratory. Officials estimated that they have recovered more than two-thirds of the vehicle.

Special correspondent Susan Steinberg contributed to this story from Santa Monica.