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Hunters, hikers asked to look out for Olympic bomber
ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- With deer hunting season under way and fall foliage ready to drop, the FBI is reminding anyone who spends time outdoors in western North Carolina to be on the lookout for accused Olympic Park bomber Eric Robert Rudolph, one of the agency's most wanted fugitives since 1998. Rudolph, now 36, is believed to have left a bag containing a bomb in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park during the Summer Games in 1996. The explosion killed one woman and wounded more than 100. He is also accused of bombing two women's clinics that provide abortions in Atlanta, Georgia, and Birmingham, Alabama, and a lesbian bar in Atlanta. A $1 million reward has been offered for information leading to his arrest and conviction. The last known sighting of Rudolph was in July 1998, when he surfaced to get supplies from health food store owner George Nordmann. Investigators believe he's still alive and hiding out somewhere in western North Carolina, possibly in one of the hundreds of caves and abandoned mines in the region or in the Nantahala National Forest, which covers about 500,000 acres. The Rudolph investigation -- handled by the FBI's Southeast Bomb Task Force -- recently shifted from Atlanta to Asheville and is now headed by Agent Rick Schwein, according to an FBI statement. Friday, Schwein will hold a briefing near Murphy, North Carolina, for hunters, hikers and anyone else who spends time outdoors in that region. He'll ask them to "be aware of any trash, footprints or any other elements that are unusual or out of place, which could be of interest in the investigation," the FBI statement said. Schwein said the office has received "hundreds of leads." "It's usually someone believing they saw Rudolph at the Wal-Mart or off the highway," the agent said, adding that most of the leads are from the Asheville area or the western part of the state. "Some are good," he said. Schwein said law enforcement is still operating on the theory that Rudolph is alive and living in the area and that he is possibly being assisted by someone. "That's where all the facts point," he said. "There's no indication he's dead." The investigation was scaled back earlier this year, after four years and $30 million spent to find the fugitive. But agents said that doesn't mean it's any less important. "We're out there operating very quietly, every day," said Schwein. "We want the public and the victims to know we haven't forgotten." "The successful resolution of the Rudolph fugitive investigation remains a priority within the FBI's Counterterrorism program," said FBI Special Agent Chris Swecker. Rudolph and his family moved to western North Carolina when he was a teenager. Investigators and those close to Rudolph say that he would occasionally disappear into the woods for weeks on end and that he grew marijuana among the trees. Rudolph was living in a trailer on the outskirts of Murphy, North Carolina, where investigators tracked him the day after a bombing at a Birmingham abortion clinic in January 1998. By the time federal agents moved in, he had disappeared.
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