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Sunday, May 11, 2008

Ind. Courts - Unsolved Tippecanoe County Courthouse bombing nearly ten years old

"Time is ticking on courthouse cold case" is the headline to this Sophia Voravong report today in the Lafayette Journal & Courier. Some quotes:

Just after 10:09 p.m. on Aug. 2, 1998, sheriff's Deputy Tom Lehman was dispatched to investigate reports of a fire at the Fourth Street entrance of the Tippecanoe County Courthouse.
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He didn't know what to make of learning that a pickup truck had driven into the building. More confusion set in when firefighters found an explosive device in the truck's bed.

"We were trying to figure out why someone would do that," Lehman recalled recently. "What in the world could they have been thinking?"

For the past year, Lehman, now a sheriff's detective, has been working with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to find the person or people responsible for the attempted bombing.

Investigators have just three months before a 10-year federal statute of limitations for arson and related crimes runs out, said David Capp, interim U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana.

"Our time is clicking," he said.

No suspects were ever publicly named. No one has been charged.

But Lehman said investigators looked at "a lot of people" considered persons of interest.

Authorities since last spring have been going over all documents related to the initial investigation, making sure that each lead has been followed up.

"There was so much confusion around that time, to be honest," Lehman said. "We're trying to make sure that nothing has been overlooked."

Capp, who was with the U.S. Attorney's Office when the attempted bombing occurred, said the idea was that fresh sets of eyes would perhaps find details that had been missed.

He said investigators have been working regularly on the case. More information could be released soon.

"What we really need is for any member of the public who thinks they might know something to contact us -- even if in their minds, that information is insignificant," Capp said. "We want to talk to them and can keep things confidential, so they don't have to be concerned about that."

Lehman said authorities are working to put together a hot line to report tips anonymously. They also are trying to figure out the exact amount of reward money available for anyone who may have information that could lead to a conviction.

From a side-bar:
The next year, metal detectors were installed in the courthouse, placed at the front of County Court 2 -- now Superior Court 5 -- and Superior Courts 1 and 3.

Additional security updates were made after a series of bomb threats following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In 2003, all but two entrances were closed, with the public entering on Fourth Street.

The public entrance was switched to Columbia Street in August 2006.

People entering the courthouse are required to empty their pockets, go through a metal detector and send their personal belongings through an X-ray machine to be examined for potential weapons.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 11, 2008 12:15 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts