[Rte66]

You wrote:

"If the bench was destroyed where he was sitting, how was he attaching the bomb to a bus? Hmmmm. Nope. That ain't it.

It may have prematurely detonated, but my bet is that whoever (maybe him, maybe not) had expected some crowd outflux from the stadium at halftime and the crowd was late."
~~~~~

Here's what I'm noodling over this morning. First of all, the bench wasn't destroyed. It was removed by the FBI investigators and packaged for forensic examiners. People who have visited the scene say there are just bolts in the concrete where it was. There is an identical bench to it a few feet away, for comparison.

OK. Here is what I copied into my files from the OU Daily website yesterday, shortly after it was posted, around 5:30PM CDT:

~~~~~
UPDATE: 5:30 p.m. - The three buses parked in the South Oval from yesterday's bombing are now gone. OU Police have also left the scene. The only vehicle left from earlier today is a white limo, which was parked behind the three buses.

The South Oval has returned to normal, with people sitting around the fountains and walking freely in the areas blocked off Saturday following the detonation.

The only sign that a bombing occured is yellow tape surrounding the area where Joel Hinrichs, the 21-year-old engineering student, was killed. A bench also used to be here.
~~~~~~~~

In fact, a FReeper also posted that same info at
2,886 posted on 10/02/2005 5:59:35 PM CDT by BlackRain

However, on another blog, around 7:50PM CDT, a poster copied the OU Daily update from 5:30PM and it read like this--this is also how it is still published:

~~~~~~
" 5:30 p.m. — The three buses parked in the South Oval from yesterday's bombing are now gone. OU Police have also left the scene. The only vehicle left from earlier today is a white limo, which was parked behind the three buses.

The South Oval has returned to normal, with people sitting around the fountains and walking freely in the areas blocked off Saturday following the detonation.

The only sign that a bombing occurred is yellow tape and at least 50 matches surrounding the area where Joel Hinrichs, 21-year-old engineering student, was killed while sitting on a bench. The bench was removed this morning."
~~~~~~

So, we can perhaps assume that an OU Daily person had gone to the scene after the first writing and had observed those 50 matches.

Now my curiosity is piqued and I'm wondering if those are spent matches, already burnt, and if so, why weren't they gathered as evidence? If not, who left them there? Who was standing there long enough to light 50 matches? The FBI, looking at a blank spot? Do they do things like that, messing up a crime scene after the fact?

If they're not burnt, why are they there? And if they are burnt and were for some reason inadvertently left there, but ARE evidence, did Hinrichs sit there, lighting match after match trying to detonate a fuse of some type? What would this tell us about the type of bomb?

Last, I read this morning that his father said "hydrogen peroxide" was used. We don't know if this was true info given to him; misinfo given to him (since it sounds like the TATP combo that includes a type of peroxide, but not everyday household hydrogen peroxide); or his own interpretation of what was told to him.
Does this fit with a type of bomb that has a lightable fuse? And does this tell us anything useful?

[The Westerner]

Yes, the matches comment did get my notice. Didn't Reid the shoebomber on the AA flight try to light his tennis shoe? Wonder if it was windy on Sat night?

This photo of him with the beard tells the story. But it may be totally fake. I guess one of his frat brothers could tell you whether he indeed grew a Muslim beard.

[Smokin' Joe]

Hmmmm OK. You have info I do not. What kind of matches? Paper or wooden? Wooden matches may have been scattered and ignited by the explosion. Individual paper matches have to be removed to separate them and are more difinitive that someone spent time igniting them.

Although there are not as many smokers around as there used to be, a smoker would probably carry a lighter, (most non-smokers do not) not matches.

Most engineers I have known are gadget freaks, too. Especially the Mech Engineering types, more likely to find the neatest igniter gizmo they could, as long as it is reliable. Although I guess that might include matches, too.

Does anyone have a picture of the bench after the explosion? Scorch marks on concrete, fracture patterns, embedded objects (even miroscopic ones) etc. might shed more light on this (which is one of the reasons to remove it, as well as for chemical testing).