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Birmingham, Alabama: January 29, 1998 -- A nail-laden bomb
rips through the New Woman All Women Clinic, where abortions
are performed. Security guard Robert Sanderson, 35, is
killed; Emily Lyons, 41, a nurse, is critically injured.
Witnesses see a pickup leaving the area with North Carolina
license plate KND-1117. The vehicle is registered to Eric
Rudolph, 31, of Marble, North Carolina.
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Cherokee County, North Carolina: January 30, 1998 -- Rudolph
is identified as a material witness in the clinic blast.
Federal and state law enforcement officers begin an intensive
search for him in the mountains of western North Carolina,
where he lived.
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Birmingham: February 1, 1998 -- Hundreds of law enforcement
officers turn out for the funeral of Sanderson, a Birmingham
police officer who was moonlighting at the clinic when he
died.
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Atlanta: February 2, 1998 -- Letters signed by the "Army of
God," which claims responsibility for the blast, arrive at
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Atlanta office of
Reuters news service. The same group claimed responsibility
earlier for a January 1997 bombing at a women's clinic where
abortions are performed in the Atlanta suburb of Sandy
Springs and a February 1997 blast at an Atlanta nightclub
with a mostly lesbian clientele.
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Birmingham: February 5, 1998 -- The New Woman All Women
Clinic reopens.
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Murphy, North Carolina: February 8, 1998 -- Rudolph's truck
is found about five miles from the abandoned mobile home that
was his last known residence.
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Blairsville, Georgia: February 10, 1998 -- Federal agents
rush to a convenience store after a clerk phones police to
say she saw Rudolph getting into a Volkswagen driven by a
woman. Authorities later determine that the sighting was a
case of mistaken identity.
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Atlanta: February 27, 1998 -- Federal agents confirm that
physical evidence shows similarities between the Birmingham
bombing and three unsolved bomb attacks in Atlanta: at
Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympics; at the
women's clinic in January 1997; and at the nightclub the
following month.
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Birmingham: March 2, 1998 -- Emily Lyons, the nurse injured
in the clinic blast, makes her first public appearance at a
news conference. "If your goal was to shut the clinic down or
to shut me down, it didn't work. It's not going to work,"
said a defiant Lyons in a message to those responsible for
the bombing.
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Ladson, South Carolina: March 8, 1998 -- Rudolph's brother,
Daniel, deliberately cuts off his hand with an electric saw,
videotaping the incident to, in his words, "send a message to
the FBI and the media."
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Washington: May 5, 1998 -- The FBI formally places Rudolph on
its Ten Most Wanted list, seeking him as a suspect in the
Birmingham bombing and for questioning in the Atlanta blasts.
A $1 million reward is offered for information leading to his
arrest.
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park: June 21, 1998 -- A man
with a high-powered rifle opens fire on two park rangers,
killing one. Despite initial speculation that Rudolph may
have been involved, police capture the shooting suspect, who
turns out not to be Rudolph.
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Nantahala Lake, North Carolina: July 7, 1998 -- Rudolph comes
out of hiding and contacts a former neighbor, George Nordman,
to ask for food and supplies. Nordman complies but later
contacts authorities after Rudolph takes his truck, which had
50 to 75 pounds of food inside.
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Nantahala National Forest, North Carolina: July 13 --
Nordman's truck is found, with $500 left inside by Rudolph to
pay for what he took.
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