Search Turns Up All but 2 Blast Victims

Exhausted and their hopes gone, recovery workers were nearing the end of their search for bodies in the bombed-out Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, finding the remains of all but two adult victims early today in the worst terrorist attack in American history.

The discovery in the last pile of debris brought the death toll to 164. Oklahoma City Fire Chief Gary Marrs had said Thursday that his team would work through the night, if necessary, to complete the search.

“The area we’re working in is getting very small,” Marrs said. “We’re going to put a finale to this.”

In Washington, U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, grappling with the public anguish over the April 19 bombing, as well as the continuing investigation, said:

“I could never understand what happened in Oklahoma City. I, for one, do not understand, cannot comprehend, anybody that would do something like (this) or anything related to it.”

She said that the manhunt for other bombing suspects will continue, even if “it is a disappointment that ‘John Doe No. 2’ has not been identified or taken into custody.”

One bombing suspect--27-year-old Timothy J. McVeigh, an Army veteran with a penchant for guns and a hatred for the government--has been arrested.

But investigators believe that a second man helped rent a yellow Ryder truck and deliver the bomb to the front of the office building in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City. And they think that members of anti-government militias that have sprung up around the nation might have aided those who set off the bomb.

Nevertheless, Reno said that the militia groups “have a right to meet and to talk and we must be careful not to generalize these groups on the basis of one or two persons.

“The department does not focus on militias,” she added.

With the government offering a $2-million reward, a hot line has gotten more than 36,000 calls, from which more than 14,800 substantive leads have been written up and sent to FBI offices around the nation, a federal official told Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Oklahoma City Police Chief Sam Gonzales echoed growing frustrations that the nationwide manhunt has not yet found Doe No. 2. And as more days slip by without an arrest, more and more law enforcement officials are questioning whether he still exists.

*

“I’ve had no inclination of any kind that John Doe did not exist,” the chief said. “I think he existed at one time. Whether or not he’s still out there, I don’t know.” Gonzales was referring to the possibility that the second suspect died in the blast, died later or has gone underground.

With recovery efforts all but over, Fire Chief Marrs said that death certificates will be issued for the bodies that are not found.

“We may not ever account for 100% of them because of the force of the explosion,” he said. “But we will get through the remaining rubble to recover what is recoverable. We will get to the end of the rubble pile.”

The site then will be turned over to investigators still hoping to unearth clues to the bombing. After they are finished, the shattered structure will be put back in the hands of the government’s General Services Administration, which ultimately must decide what to do with the nine-story, half-shell cavern on the Oklahoma skyline.

Officials said that what is left of the building will be knocked down. But exactly how that will be done has not been decided--whether piece by piece on the long-shot chance that other bodies might be found or by implosion.

Oklahoma City Mayor Ron Norick said there are different plans for the site, ranging from putting up another office structure to replacing it with a memorial to the victims. Even if the government insists on a new office building, he said, some kind of downtown memorial will be erected.

“None of the options have been discounted at this point,” he said.

“But we feel like when we get to the end (of the recovery effort) we are not going to have everybody accounted for and we know there are some family members who are not going to have a closure on this part of the process.”

The Rev. Don Alexander said that the families who have been gathering daily at his First Christian Church here are being counseled to accept that their loved ones are gone.

“People are dealing more and more with the reality that they will have to go on with their lives in order to not dishonor those who have died,” he said.

Ray Blakeney, director of operations for the Oklahoma state medical examiner, said that his office, the governor’s office and the state attorney general are devising a plan to have a judge issue death certificates in cases where bodies are not found. This would allow survivors to collect on life insurance policies and to make other financial arrangements.

*

As a parting gesture, a group of firefighters from Orange County met with families of victims. The Orange County Fire Authority had sent a 62-person contingent to the rescue effort organized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“The hugs and the tears were flowing in both directions,” said Fire Capt. Edward Fleming, describing the emotional farewell. “We felt sad to be leaving Oklahoma (with work yet undone). But that’s the way it is sometimes in rescue work.”

John Long, whose mother, Rheta, was killed in the blast, said that many families have been discussing what to do if their relatives are among those never recovered.

“The families most at risk for not getting their loved ones (back) are, in their own way, making peace with that,” said Long, whose mother was found after 10 days.

“They’re talking about having memorials and funerals. You cannot go on with that emptiness and loneliness. You need closure.”

Times staff writer Robert L. Jackson in Washington contributed to this story.