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Police torch New Hampshire killer's barn
Property laced with explosives
August 21, 1997
Web posted at: 11:27 a.m. EDT (1527 GMT)COLUMBIA, New Hampshire (CNN) -- Investigators made preparations Thursday to comb through the charred -- and possibly booby-trapped -- property of an eccentric troublemaker who gunned down four people before being killed by police.
Authorities have found 650 pounds of ammonium nitrate in three outbuildings on Carl Drega's property and believe more explosives lie in an elaborate network of tunnels on the land.
A barn belonging to Drega was set ablaze Wednesday by authorities.
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A barn belonging to Drega was set ablaze Wednesday by authorities who feared Drega had booby-trapped the area. An explosion ripped through the barn shortly after the fire began.
Officials said they would wait for the smoldering remains to cool before scouring the building's remains for more clues about Drega, who had a long-running feud with local officials over zoning and other property issues.
Associate Attorney General Michael Ramsdell said it might be a day or two before investigators could explore the tunnels under Drega's secluded property on the bank of the Connecticut River.
The land was the center of a decades-old dispute Drega had with the town of Columbia. In the early 1970s, the town sued over Drega's refusal to apply for a building permit -- a lawsuit Drega eventually lost.
Drega killed two state troopers, lawyer Vickie Bunnell, who was also a part-time judge, and a newspaper editor during the Tuesday rampage. He then fled to neighboring Vermont, where he wounded four more officers before he was killed in a 45-minute gun battle. An autopsy showed he was hit by at least four bullets, including the fatal one through the mouth.
In addition to the ammonium nitrate found on Drega's land, police discovered bomb-making books and a weapons manual in the smoldering ruins of Drega's house in northwestern New Hampshire. Drega burned down the house in the middle of the killing spree.
Ammonium nitrate is used in some explosives as well as fertilizers and rocket fuel. Diesel fuel combined with ammonium nitrate was the explosive mixture used in the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings.
Copyright 1997 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Related story:
- New Hampshire gunman kills 4, dies in shootout - August 19, 1997
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