The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK)
April 24, 2004 Saturday
Nichols' jurors learn about mystery leg; Severed limb was never matched to any known bombing victim.
Nolan Clay, Staff Writer
McALESTER — Jurors at Terry Nichols' state murder trial learned Friday that a severed left leg never was matched to anyone after the Oklahoma City bombing.
Jurors also learned the gruesome details of how more than 70 of the victims died in the April 19, 1995, attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
"This is not easy," said Dr. Fred Jordan, the state's chief medical examiner, as he described one by one the causes of death.
Jordan conceded under defense questioning that someone else may have been killed because one left leg could not be matched with any of the 168 known bombing fatalities.
"That's possible," Jordan testified. "This is a mystery to which I don't have the answer."
Nichols, 49, contends executed bomber Timothy McVeigh had help from others — not him. His attorneys may suggest during closing arguments the unmatched leg is all that is left of McVeigh's true accomplice.
Jordan testified his "gut feeling" was that medical examiners made a mistake and the leg belonged to a known victim. He told jurors, though, he and other experts studied X-rays and other evidence and couldn't figure out any mistake.
He said anthropologists concluded the shaven left leg likely belonged to a woman of mixed race who was 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall. Prosecutors suggested Friday the leg could have belonged to a homeless person.
Outside the courthouse, Jordan told reporters: "I've always thought this had to be a mistake on our part. ... There were a lot of missing parts. ... But we have looked and looked and looked. Other pathologists have looked. Other anthropologists have looked. And we can't find it. ... Could it be another individual? I have to say, 'Could be. I don't know.' ... I do not know whose leg it is. That's the bottom line."
Leg had been placed in coffin
The mystery leg had been mistakenly placed in the coffin of Tinker Airman 1st Class Lakesha Levy, who was killed while visiting the Social Security office.
Officials discovered the mistake when they identified a left leg found in the rubble on May 30, 1995, as Levy's leg. Officials made that identification from a footprint on Levy's birth records.
The mystery leg was studied after Levy's casket was removed in 1996 from an above-ground crypt in New Orleans.
(snip)
Prosecutors suggested Friday the leg could have belonged to a homeless person.
Of course, because all homeless people take the time to shave their legs. Not.