Posted on 02/15/2002 1:35:24 PM PST by weegee
The first firefighters at a fiery car wreck Sunday in Fayette County that killed a Memphis driver's license examiner thought it was suspicious even as they put out the flames. Investigators began an immediate search for a device that might have triggered the intense fire, said the chief of the Piperton Fire Department.
The fire killed Katherine Smith, the examiner at the center of a federal investigation of an alleged scheme to issue driver's licenses fraudulently to men with Middle Eastern ties.
Smith died one day before she was due to appear before a federal magistrate judge for a detention hearing on the conspiracy charge. She was released on her own recognizance, but her five co-defendants have been in custody since their arrests Feb. 5.
Piperton Fire Chief Steve Kellett said he, other firefighters and Tennessee Highway Patrol officers immediately thought the fire was suspicious. For one thing, the fire appeared to have started in the rear.
"The thing that was strange about it was how high up in the car it was. Normally, if it's from a gas line, it tends to burn up everything and works from the front to the back," Kellett said Thursday.
His description is consistent with testimony Wednesday by FBI agent J. Suzanne Nash before Magistrate Judge J. Daniel Breen. Nash said a group of six witnesses saw a fire in the back seat of Smith's car as the 1992 Acura Legend veered off a stretch of U.S. 72 shortly before 1 a.m. The car crossed a ditch and landed against a utility pole.
"There was lots of damage for the amount of time it was on fire," Kellett said, noting that the fire also spread to the pole. "We would spray an area that normally would go out, but it would keep catching back. That gives you a feeling that there was something there."
Highway Patrol investigators did not find an incendiary device in the car that night, Kellett said, ". . . but they were looking for one."
The Piperton department is trained in fighting arson and spotting signs of accelerants - substances used to start and direct the path of fires. "We've had a lot of training. We've seen what accelerated fires can do," Kellett said.
In 1996, he investigated a similar vehicle fire. In that case, a truck was burned with a device that used a milk jug filled with gasoline.
Nash testified Wednesday that Smith's clothing had gasoline on it and that a dog trained to detect the presence of accelerants indicated such substances were in the car.
Samples of those materials are being tested, she said. She also said the fire was set but did not say how or who may have done it.
Kellett said two "bubble spots" on the back of the trunk indicate arson. "Something was pushing the fire. It was focusing it in a direction."
Someone explain how this fire was "pushed"...
Yet, it so obviously wasn't an accident.
One wonders why they bothered. Why not a simple bullet-in-the-head execution?
The method itself raises questions concerning the motivation.
Sounds like Willey Pete -- white phosphorus. I think the only way to put that out is to totally remove all exposure to oxygen.
Im inclined to think the pole wasn't part of a staging. Merely the thing that stopped the car which was slowing down anyway.
Perhaps the contraption intended to blow up the gas tank too, which might give a better cover story as an accident. But this didn't happen.
Because.....
This is truly chilling if this pans out to be connected to the 5 in jail. It would mean we have a sleeper cell in Tenn with possible New York connections who just told us they will go to any length to stay hidden...
Chilling!
Obviously, they thought they could get away with it. Which means they aren't so smart. But they are ruthless, and they're still nearby.
Whoever botched this job may not be long for this world himself.
How hot would this fire have to get to burn her arms and legs off??
It pretty clearly wasn't an accident.
With slightly different timing, or hitting, say, an oncoming car it sure would have looked like one.
We're not dealing with nice people here...
"Contraption." My thought, too.
The idea of Molotov cocktail thrown from another car makes no sense. How do you throw one inside a moving car, especially with the windows up (as I presume they were)?
Somebody would have had to waylay the lady, render her unconscious, douse her and the car with gasoline or some other accelerant, then rig it with some kind of device.
Then, and only then, move the car to this particular stretch of highway, start it rolling, bail out and activate the device.
The process requires at least one confederate...and some preparation time. I wonder where and when the lady was last seen alive...
Six witnesses saw the car leave the road.
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