A railroad contractor was taken away for questioning by FBI agents who also confiscated bags of evidence in their search for the person responsible for sabotaging an Amtrak train in Arizona.
John Ernest Olin, 32, said his house was "trashed" Wednesday morning by investigators looking for evidence of a plan to derail a train.The search warrant was believed to be the first issued since Amtrak's Sunset Limited hurtled into a dry gulch before dawn on Oct. 9 in the desert near Hyder, Ariz., about 55 miles southwest of Phoenix. One person was killed and 78 were injured.
Olin was kept away from the house during the search and wasn't formally questioned.
"We are just maintaining a friendly dialogue. There are no charges being brought," said FBI agent Charles Middleton. "He's free to do anything he wants."
Asked if he derailed the train, Olin angrily responded, "No, I didn't do it. I've never been in that area in my life."
Olin told reporters Wednesday night that he had been talking with federal investigators for about six weeks.
He shares a rented home 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles with a girlfriend and her young child, according to the FBI and his lawyer, Allan Sarkin.
"He's a suspect as is anybody who worked on the railroads," said Sarkin, who described Olin as a private contractor who worked for the railroads.
A railroad crossing sign adorned the front gate of his home and a pickup truck in the driveway bore Arizona license plates.
The saboteur had removed a metal bar holding rail sections together, pulled 29 spikes from a stretch of Southern Pacific-owned rail and rewired a safety mechanism that would have warned the crew of a broken track.
At the scene, authorities found copies of a note signed "Sons of the Gestapo" that included references to the federal standoffs at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Both are rallying cries for anti-government extremists, but investigators have said the letters could be a red herring planted by someone with a grudge.
Olin had done contract cleanup work for Southern Pacific Lines in recent years, including removing trash, weeds and debris from tracks and rights-of-way, company spokesman Mike Furtney said.