FBI Search Former Home of Terry Nichols
HERINGTON, Kan. (AP) - FBI agents Thursday searched a home where Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols used to live after receiving a report that there were explosives inside.
If explosives are found, FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said, agents will investigate whether they are connected to Nichols, who has not lived in the home near downtown Herington for years.
Residents in nine homes near the house were evacuated during the search, which continued late Thursday.
Nichols was living in the home at the time of the April 19, 1995, bombing, which killed 168 people.
Georgia Rucker, a Herington real estate agent, has owned the home since 1997 and rented it out several times. She said Thursday that the last tenant was evicted in October and she had been preparing the home for sale in recent weeks.
Rucker said she was contacted by two FBI agents Thursday and gave permission for federal authorities to search the premises. She said she was told that authorities had information that explosive material was in a crawl space of the house, which has a half-basement.
She said she had noticed a small door to the crawl space was ajar in recent days but wasn't concerned because someone had been working on the furnace system.
Nichols is serving life prison sentences on federal and state convictions for the bombing. Bombing mastermind Timothy McVeigh was executed in 2001.
04/01/05 04:12
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