Agent Says Suspect Had Explosive Traces at Home

Traces of an explosive used to bomb an Alabama abortion clinic were found in Eric Rudolph’s home in North Carolina, a federal agent testified Tuesday in a pretrial hearing for the serial-bombing suspect.

Richard Alan Strobel, an explosives expert for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said small quantities of the compound EGDN were found on numerous items -- including socks, a blanket, a bedsheet, a toolbox and a brown wig -- taken from Rudolph’s trailer during a search after the January 1998 bombing.

Strobel said the same explosive substance was found in the crater left by the nail-laden bomb that exploded outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham, killing a police officer and critically injuring a nurse.

“The finding of EGDN tells us we are dealing with dynamite,” he testified.

Later, he appeared to fight back anger when asked about possible contamination of the crime scene by a man who arrived at the clinic moments after the explosion and tried to help an injured nurse.

If anyone was trying to help the injured, “I’ve got no problem with that,” Strobel told defense lawyer Michael Burt.

The testimony came at the start of a hearing before U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith, who is considering a defense request to throw out the explosives evidence as unreliable.

The defense has argued that investigators could have unknowingly transferred explosives traces found at the clinic to Rudolph’s trailer or a storage unit he had rented.

Strobel, who helped gather evidence both at the bombing scene and in North Carolina, testified that agents went to great lengths to avoid contaminating potential evidence, wearing protective suits over clean clothes, along with two sets of gloves.

“They were taken in a manner that I am fully confident precluded any chance of contamination,” he said.

Preliminary jury selection for Rudolph’s trial is set for April 6, with opening statements expected in early June.