* Images of the burned car owned by Katherine Smith * alternate title: How Arabs Kill Witnesses

Yahoo-AP ^ | 02.15.02 | AP

[Registered]

The burned car of Katherine Smith sits in a garage at the FBI office Thursday, Feb. 14, 2002, in Memphis, Tenn. Smith, 49, a Tennessee state employee, charged in a scheme with five Middle Eastern men to sell fraudulent Tennessee driver's licenses, died Sunday in a fiery car crash the day before her first court appearance. Her badly burned body was discovered Sunday in a rural Tennessee County. FBI agent J. Suzanne Nash testified Wednesday that witnesses told investigators they "noticed flames from the back seat" before Smith's car struck a pole. The agent added that the gas tank was intact. (AP Photo/Greg Campbell)

Special Agent George Bolds IV, media coordinator for the FBI Memphis Office, inspects the trunk of a burned-out Acura, owned by Katherine Smith, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2002, in Memphis. Smith, a driver's license examiner, was scheduled to appear in federal court Monday on charges that she sold driver's licenses to five Middle Eastern men, primarily from New York, who did not have proper documentation. Her badly burned body was found in the car Sunday, after it struck a utility pole. (AP Photo/Greg Campbell)

FBI special agent George Bolds IV, a media coordinator with the FBI's Memphis office, looks at a burned-out vehicle that belonged to Katherine Smith, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2002, at the FBI office in Memphis, Tenn. Smith, 49, a Tennessee state employee, charged in a scheme with five Middle Eastern men to sell fraudulent Tennessee driver's licenses, died Sunday in a fiery car crash the day before her first court appearance. Her badly burned body was discovered Sunday in a rural Tennessee County. FBI agent J. Suzanne Nash testified Wednesday that witnesses told investigators they "noticed flames from the back seat" before Smith's car struck a pole. The agent added that the gas tank was intact. (AP Photo/Greg Campbell)

[Registered]

Was she found in the driver's seat? Was the car moving? Help me out here.

[Registered]

Well, at least she wasn't thrown into the Mississippi River for a 300 mile journey downstream...hehehe.

[mewzilla]

A driver's license examiner was driving an Acura? That should have clued someone in on something. So are the Feebs being politically correct and out looking for grey-haired little old lady perps?

[Deguello]

Looks like one of those rigged tests that Dateline NBC did.

[PatrioticAmerican]

More of this story....

[PatrioticAmerican]

Used Acuras go for less than $20,000.

[mommadooo3]

Don't know the answers to your questions. But, I read, here on FR, that she had breathed the flames in,(airway passages were 'singed') and that her arms were burned off.

Wonder what they would call a ME mafia???

[OrangeDaisy]

She was found in the drivers seat burned beyond recognition. They used dental records to ID her. Witnesses report that the car was on fire before it struck the utility pole, and there was very little damage to the car from striking the pole. They found gasoline on her clothing and some kind of accelerant in the car. The gas tank and engine were not consumed, only the interior of the car. The question is, how did the murderers ignite the fire and how did the gasoline get on her clothes, and of course, who was the murderer - a terrorist or a high up state official involved in the scheme trying to protect himself.

[kellynla]

What is so f...ing funny about the woman's death. JERK! She made a serious mistake getting involved with the wrong crowd and should not have been selling driver's licenses. She paid the ultimate cost. May God have mercy on her soul.

[Cicero]

Well, now the question is, do the FBI want to find out who did this, or not? Will they really work on this case, or will it end up like that fellow who hopped into his car in Arkansas and drove straight into a phone pole, after some of clinton's Whitewater records were found in his trunk? Were they merely incompetent in letting this happen, or were they complicit?

[Teacup]

Was she found in the driver's seat? Was the car moving? Help me out here.

Don't know. I've read several accounts of this incident. Not alot of details coming out. Witness protection, perhaps? Do they have her body, or DNA?

[Bobby777]

well, if she was involved as they say, then obviously there are still some groups active in this country ... of course we wouldn't want to profile who they might be, now would we? (praying the FBI will use common sense ...)

[Jack Wilson]

I just hope it wasn't a hate crime. That would be horrible.

[isthisnickcool]

Hmm. I'm pinging a fire expert I saw on another thread. theirjustdue

[denydenydeny]

FBI says Arson killed woman (NY Times)

Tenn Drivers License Scandal: Flaming Death no accident (Memphis Commercial Appeal)

[Apple_Hills]

MEfia.

[mewzilla]

Right. A low-level civil servant can afford a used Acura. Somehow I don't she was selling licenses because she could pay for it through legal means.

[OrangeDaisy]

Was she found in the driver's seat? Was the car moving? Help me out here.

Flaming death no accident, FBI says
Smith led low-impact life until arrest, fiery end

[Pentagram]

She made a serious mistake getting involved with the wrong crowd and should not have been selling driver's licenses.

An act that may yet produce bitter fruit for many. Perhaps those licenses will facilitate a terrorist attack somewhere? Was she so blind as not to imagine that possibility? Or did her desire for a few extra dollars blind her to this as well? None of this is funny, but pure seriousness can become tedious.

She paid the ultimate cost.

She made the same journey we all must make. She merely departed earlier than expected.

May God have mercy on her soul.

And on ours as well.

[Scarpetta]

i recall reading something yesterday that she bought the acura from one of the accused middle eastern men. me thinks there was more to these relationships than just criminal.