The Branch Davidians' promised release of three men failed to materialize, dashing hopes of progress toward a peaceful end to the standoff. The siege at the doomsday cult's compound entered its 13th day Friday.
The sect had said the men wanted to leave and would come out Thursday. It would have been the first departure by men since the siege began. But by day's end, nothing happened.Only children and two elderly women have left the heavily armed compound, where gun battles Feb. 28 left four federal agents and at least two cultists dead.
Also Thursday, a girl who once lived in the compound appeared on "Donahue" and said the cult had trained her to commit suicide with a pistol or poison.
Twelve-year-old Kiri Jewell warned of a possible mass suicide by the sect and urged authorities to storm the compound.
"Better a few people die than all of them," Kiri said.
Authorities had looked on the promised release as a positive sign after several days of often heated telephone negotiations with sect leader David Koresh, an apocalyptic preacher and self-proclaimed messiah.
"I think it will be a backward step if they don't come out," FBI agent Dick Swensen said Thursday. Officials last spoke to Koresh on Tuesday night, when he complained of a headache. But talks continued with followers.
Early in the siege, Koresh reneged on a promise to surrender the entire cult after an hourlong taped sermon of his was broadcast on radio.
The women and 21 children were allowed to leave last week. Ninety adults and 17 children were believed still inside.
Swensen identified one of the three men who wanted to leave as Oliver Gyarfas, 19, an Australian. The identities of the other men weren't known.
"He's a very nice, lovely, beautiful and God-fearing person who has been brainwashed by the cult leader," Oliver Gyarfas Sr., the teenager's grandfather, said Friday in Melbourne, Australia. He said his 17-year-old granddaughter was also in the compound.
Kiri, who lived with the cult for four years, said she was taught how to put a gun in her mouth and how to commit suicide by taking cyanide.
The girl was removed from the compound last year after a court granted her father custody.