4 years after Olympic bombing, suspect eludes authorities

Rudolph

Eric Robert Rudolph carries a $1 million bounty

In this story: Handyman hides in N.C. hills Locals sympathetic to fugitive RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Brian Cabell
CNN Correspondent

ANDREWS, North Carolina (CNN) -- Four years after the Atlanta Olympic bombing, authorities are still trying to find the man they think is responsible.

Eric Robert Rudolph, one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted fugitives, is still at large, despite a $1 million reward.

FBI Director Louis Freeh said investigators have forensic evidence and witness statements that point to Rudolph. Additionally, Attorney General Janet Reno has vowed federal officials will continue searching for Rudolph until he is found.

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The July 27, 1996, explosion during a free concert in Centennial Olympic Park killed Alice Hawthorne of Albany, Georgia, and injured more than 100 others.

It took three more bombings before police had a name for their suspect who allegedly left the bomb in a backpack at the park.

Six months after the Olympic bombing, two bombs exploded at a medical clinic where abortions are performed outside Atlanta. A month later, there was another double-bombing, this one at a gay and lesbian nightclub in Atlanta.

There were no fatalities in those attacks.

But in January, 1998, a security guard was killed and a nurse maimed by the bombing of the New Woman/All Women clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, another clinic where abortions are performed.

This time, authorities had a suspect.

A check of the North Carolina license plate on a pickup truck seen near the clinic around the time of the blast showed it registered to Rudolph.

The gray Nissan was found abandoned near Cherokee, North Carolina, about five miles from the mobile home where Rudolph had lived.

A warrant was issued for the 32-year-old handyman who was known to be suspicious of the government.

Federal agents scoured the mountains and caves in the rugged wilderness of the Nantahala Mountains in the western tip of North Carolina, where Rudolph, an accomplished outdoorsman, is thought to have retreated.

In July Rudolph showed up at the home of George Nordmann, his former neighbor and the owner of a health food store in Andrews, North Carolina.

Rudolph reportedly gave Nordmann a handwritten grocery list requesting batteries, oatmeal, beans and enough other items to keep him supplied for a year.

Nordmann described Rudolph as being unarmed, thinner, with a beard, longer hair and wearing full camouflage clothing, a law enforcement source told CNN at the time.

Nordmann provided Rudolph with some of the food items he had requested and arranged to meet with him again on the night of July 9 at Nordmann's home so Rudolph could pick up the rest.

Instead, Nordmann arrived a day after the scheduled meeting to discover his blue Datsun pickup truck and about 50 to 75 pounds of food missing. Rudolph left five $100 bills as payment, the source said.

After Nordmann reported the theft, law enforcement agents converged on the area. The missing truck was discovered at a campground in the Nantahala National Forest. Federal authorities then officially charged him with all four bombings, put him on the Most Wanted list and offered a million dollars for his capture.

And now, 2 1/2 years after the last bombing, all but a few of the federal agents have left the North Carolina hills, frustrated but still asking for help.

"There have been flyers put on the Appalachian Trail," said Capt. Bob Scott of the Macon County Sheriff's Department.

"Hikers, campers, fishermen -- everybody is basically trying to keep an eye out for anything that would be suspicious," Scott said.

A few locals are being paid to keep their eyes and ears open for Rudolph, but marina owner John Smith is skeptical about the effort.

"I think it's just a desperate attempt because ain't nobody looking for him, and nobody really expects to see him," said Smith.

There remains some sympathy and admiration for Rudolph in the area.

"It's not because he blew up something and killed people -- if he did," said local restaurant owner Peggy Ellison. "It's because he's outsmarted the government."

And would the million dollar reward be enough to tempt anyone to turn Rudolph in to authorities?

"I don't know what I'd do. I'd just have to wait and think about it because he's one of us," said resident Jonathan Ellison.

That sympathy has led some people in the area to speculate that Rudolph is getting help from friends. Others say he has surely fled the region. The FBI officially said it believes he's still there. In reality, they don't know.

There is the distinct possibility that Rudolph is dead -- from a bite from a snake or insect, from exposure, or from falling off a cliff.

But authorities don't have evidence of that, so Rudolph remains a wanted fugitive.

FBI scales back presence in Eric Rudolph manhunt
March 21, 2000
FBI scales back search for suspected serial bomber
March 22, 1999
Rudolph charged in Olympic bombing
October 14, 1998

Federal Bureau of Investigation
 •  The FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
North Carolina National Forests - Nantahala

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