US Mounts a Vast Hunt for Church Arsonists

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/national/15church.html

TUSCALOOSA, Ala., Feb. 14 — In the largest manhunt in Alabama since the bombing of a Birmingham abortion clinic in 1998, 200 law enforcement officers are working to solve the arson that has damaged or destroyed 10 rural churches this month.

"The initial forensic work is done," Special Agent Eric Kehn, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said Tuesday. "Now we are just working the scene, and it is a big scene. We are out and about, in the community, pursuing leads. To date, we have over 400 of them, and we take them all seriously."

As the investigators continued pursuing the case Tuesday, a 21-year-old man was jailed on suspicion of setting an additional fire, which damaged a storage room Monday night at an abandoned church in White Plains, in northeastern Alabama. But the authorities called that episode a copycat of the 10 others. The Calhoun County sheriff, Larry Amerson, said it was "absolutely not" linked to the other fires.

Witness accounts and behavioral profiles have described the suspects in those fires as two white men in their 20's or 30's.

"These men," Mr. Cavanaugh said, "may be driving a dark S.U.V., possibly a Nissan Pathfinder."

But he added that with more than one man most likely involved, they could be driving multiple vehicles.

The state fire marshal, Richard Montgomery, said the investigation had special meaning to task force members. "It's personal," he said. "You don't hurt kids. You don't hurt old folks. And you don't burn churches."

didn't that moron matthews say it was probably liberals or gays? I mean, he's never wrong is he?

they'll never find him.

bomber?

much energy trying to find those that burnt all those black churches a few years back...Then again maybe people are coming out of their slumber and deciding that law and order is really a good thing. :shrug: Yah right.......

they had been notified to be on the lookout because synagogues were also targeted. Now, rather than just clerical and office admin. duties to handle, her "other duties as assigned" category has opened up to include monitoring the video feed from the security cameras.