Two men being sought as witnesses in the Oklahoma City bombing were taken into custody Tuesday in Carthage, Mo., after their car was spotted in a motel parking lot, authorities said.
The men were detained amid a nationwide manhunt for "John Doe 2," the second suspect in the nation's worst domestic terrorist attack.Gary Allen Land and Robert Jacks were arrested without incident on material witness warrants issued in connection with the bombing, said FBI spokesman Dan Vogel. He refused to give further details.
Asked if the heavyset, square-jawed Land could be "John Doe 2," Vogel said, "We don't know that. We have not determined whether he is or not."
A federal grand jury was believed to be meeting in Oklahoma City. Authorities refused to confirm various reports, including statements from a Wisconsin couple who operate a military surplus store who say they were subpoenaed to appear.
The Missouri Highway Patrol was alerted by the FBI to watch for a white 1981 Thunderbird with an Arizona license plate around Joplin. Sgt. Rick Baird spotted the vehicle at the Kel Lake Motel in nearby Carthage about 9 p.m. Monday and questioned the two men, said Highway Patrol Sgt. Archie Dunn.
FBI agents secured the area around the motel, then, at 6:05 a.m. Tuesday, entered a motel room and took the men into custody, Dunn said.
At midmorning, the eight-unit, one-story brick motel was cordoned off with police tape, and FBI agents were milling about outside. Telephone calls to the motel were answered by the FBI.
Both men were expected to appear before a federal magistrate sometime Tuesday, the FBI said in a news release.
The car sought in the FBI bulletin was registered in Arizona to Land. Land and Jacks stayed for five months at a motel in Kingman, Ariz., a town frequented by bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that men believed to be Land and Jacks checked into a motel in Perry, Okla., the town where McVeigh was being held on an unrelated traffic violation, the day after the bombing. The paper said they checked back out that same day.
A motel manager in Vinita, Okla., says two men believed to be Land and Jacks checked into his motel April 19, the afternoon of the bombing.
Tom Crafton, manager of Deward and Pauline's motel in Vinita, said the men checked back in later April 20 and stayed at least until the evening of April 24.
Crafton, who said he couldn't remember the names of the men, said FBI agents came by car and helicopter Saturday night, took their registration records and examined the room where they stayed.
Vinita is 180 miles northeast of Oklahoma City on Interstate 44; Carthage is 60 miles to the northeast of there, also on the interstate.
The death toll in the April 19 blast stood at 139, including 15 children. At least 40 people were still missing.
Convinced there was almost no chance that anyone was still alive in the wreckage of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, rescue workers turned to machinery to search for bodies. A huge backhoe mounted on tracks like a bulldozer was to lift debris from inside the ruins and set it down outside, where it will be searched by hand, said Assistant Fire Chief Jon Hansen.
Hansen said he told families that "there are some people we probably won't find."
On Monday, the FBI released a revised sketch of the suspect known as John Doe 2, believed to be the man who was with McVeigh on April 17 in Junction City, Kan., when McVeigh allegedly rented the truck that carried the bomb.
The sketch shows him in a profile view, appearing stocky and wearing a baseball cap. He is very tan and muscular and may be a weightlifter, said FBI agent Weldon Kennedy.
A woman who said she knew Land when he lived in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa, Ariz., said he often lifted weights outside his trailer at the Copper State Motel & Trailer Park.
He lived there about nine months with another man before moving out last fall, said Opal Hancock. "They were just weird," Hancock said. "They would just sit there drinking all day."
The U.S. Army Personnel Center in St. Louis said Monday that Land had served in the Army. But the records center's Sgt. Dorothy Young said Tuesday that she had been mistaken about that.
Land and Jacks lived at El Trovatore Motel in Kingman, Ariz., from Nov. 3 to April 3, according to managers Bill and June Terranova. When the two men left, they said they were headed for Oklahoma.
McVeigh stayed at two motels down the road during that period: the Hilltop from Feb. 11-17 and the Imperial from March 31 to April 12.
The FBI bulletin reported that Land, 35, had been last seen April 24-25 at a motel in Vinita, said Sgt. Dave Myers, spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Jacks was described as in his mid-50s.
McVeigh is the only person charged in the case.
Two buddies of his, brothers James and Terry Nichols, have been charged separately by federal authorities in Michigan with conspiring with McVeigh to make and detonate small bombs on James Nichols' farm in Decker, Mich.
The Nicholses aren't charged in the Oklahoma City case and McVeigh isn't charged in the Michigan case.
In other developments:
- FBI agents on Monday raided a trailer in Kingman belonging to Michael Fortier, an Army buddy of McVeigh's. Fortier was seen driving off just before the raid.
- The FBI searched a spot outside Junction City, Kan., where witnesses reported seeing a Ryder truck sometime after April 17. Agents searched the woods and sent divers into Geary State Fishing Lake, looking for evidence that materials for the ammonium nitrate and fuel oil bomb were mixed nearby and the mixing equipment thrown into the water.
- In Herington, Kan., investigators found a receipt for one ton of ammonium nitrate in the home of McVeigh's friend Terry Nichols, a senior law enforcement official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The official said the receipt bore a fingerprint of McVeigh's and shows the ammonium nitrate was bought in Kansas. It could thus establish a link between the bombing and Terry Nichols.
- Terry Nichols and his brother, James, are charged with conspiring with McVeigh to detonate explosives on James Nichols' farm in Decker, Mich. The charges are unrelated to the bombing, and McVeigh is not charged in the alleged conspiracy.
A bond hearing for James Nichols was to continue Tuesday. His brother is being held without bond.