OKLAHOMA CITY: AFTER THE BOMB : No New Developments in Search for ‘Doe No. 2’

As the search for bodies ended in Oklahoma City on Friday, federal authorities reported no new developments in their multi-state hunt for clues to the elusive “John Doe No. 2,” the name given to the suspect the FBI believes played a major role in the bombing along with Timothy J. McVeigh, the only person charged directly in the case.

“Hopefully we’ll get a break soon,” one official said. “On the other hand, we may be in this for the long haul.”

Elsewhere Friday, investigators were questioning Terry L. Nichols’ claim that he had been called by McVeigh to pick him up in Oklahoma City on April 16. The Associated Press reported that federal sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said that investigators believe Nichols and McVeigh drove separate vehicles to Oklahoma City the weekend before the bombing, then returned to Kansas together in Nichols’ vehicle. They believe that such a trip would have enabled McVeigh to leave a getaway car behind.

In New Jersey, U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said at a dinner honoring federal law enforcement officers that it was despicable for anyone to use the 1993 tragedy near Waco, Tex., to justify the bombing in Oklahoma City.

She decried evidence that some extremists have sought to link the bombing to the fiery deaths of more than 80 Branch Davidian cult members, many of them allegedly shot by their own leaders. The Waco raid began when federal agents found that cult leader David Koresh had stockpiled illegal weapons that threatened the lives of others, Reno said.

“How could some people imply a moral equivalency between the government’s efforts to save lives at Waco and the cruel and indifferent taking of lives in Oklahoma City?” she asked. “Such reckless comparisons are despicable.”