ATLANTA — Richard A. Jewell, whose transformation from heroic security guard to Olympic bombing suspect and back again came to symbolize the excesses of law enforcement and the news media, died Wednesday at his home in Woodbury, Ga. He was 44.
The cause of death was not released, pending the results of an autopsy that will be performed Thursday by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. But the coroner in Meriwether County, about 60 miles southwest of here, said Jewell died of natural causes and that he had battled serious medical problems since learning he had diabetes in February.
The coroner, Johnny E. Worley, said that Jewell's wife, Dana, came home from work Wednesday morning to check on him after not being able to reach him by telephone. She found him dead on the floor of their bedroom, he said. Worley said Jewell had suffered kidney failure and had had several toes amputated since the diabetes diagnosis. "He just started going downhill ever since," he said.
The heavyset Jewell, with a country drawl and a deferential manner, became an instant celebrity after a bomb exploded in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park in the early hours of July 27, 1996, at the midpoint of the Summer Games. The explosion, which propelled hundreds of nails through the darkness, killed one woman, injured 111 people and forever changed the mood of the Olympiad.
Only minutes earlier, Jewell, who was working a temporary job as a guard, had spotted the abandoned green knapsack that contained the bomb, called it to the attention of the police, and started moving visitors away from the area. He was praised for the quick thinking that presumably saved a number of lives.
But three days later, he found himself identified in an article in The Atlanta Journal as the focus of police attention, leading to several searches of his apartment and constant surveillance by the FBI and by reporters who set upon him, he would later say, "like piranha on a bleeding cow."
The investigation by local, state and federal law agencies lasted until October 1996 and included a number of bungled tactics, including an FBI agent's attempt to question Jewell on camera under the pretense of making a training film.
In October 1996, when it became obvious that Jewell had not been involved in the bombing, the Justice Department formally cleared him.
"The tragedy was that his sense of duty and diligence made him a suspect," said John R. "Jack" Martin, one of Jewell's lawyers. "He really prided himself on being a professional police officer, and the irony is that he became the poster child for the wrongly accused."
In 2005, Eric R. Rudolph, a North Carolina man who became a suspect in the subsequent bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala., pleaded guilty to the Olympic park attack. He is serving a life sentence.
Even after being cleared, Jewell said he never felt he could outrun his notoriety. He sued several major media outlets and won settlements from NBC and CNN. His libel case against his primary nemesis, Cox Enterprises, the Atlanta newspaper's parent company, wound through the courts for a decade without resolution, though much of it was dismissed along the way.
After memories of the case subsided, Jewell took jobs with several small Georgia law enforcement agencies, most recently as a Meriwether County sheriff's deputy in 2005. Col. Chuck Smith, the chief deputy, called Jewell "very, very conscientious" and said he also served as a training officer and firearms instructor.
Jewell is survived by his wife and by his mother, Barbara.
Last year, Jewell received a commendation from Gov. Sonny Perdue, who publicly thanked him on behalf of the state for saving lives at the Olympics.