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."
When they detect THE OBVIOUS PRESCENCE of gasoline?
C'mon ...
Yeah, right.
Maybe in the movies ...
This had to be something planted in the car.....under the backseat....or dashboard set off by remote control...
Geez ... NO!
It was RATHER OBVIOUS even to the FIRE FIGHTERS.
They observed the car fire before impact. They should be concerned about their well-being at this point in time and consider leaving the area for awhile.
Whoever did this is still loose (Middle Eastern terrorist, Dixie Mafia, etc.).
I think that it's obvious that Ms. Smith underestimated how dangerous the people she'd delt with were. This could be the work of a past client but so far Odtllah is the only client we know of (and he was still mediator in this transaction).
One of the men's lawyers suggested that Ms. Smith must have led a double life and that is what brought this about, not the current case she was about to testify on.
Don't ya think there would be REMAINS of something if that were the case?
That aspect is rather easy to put to rest.
CLEARLY null and void thinking ... NO!
That is normally INSUFFICIENT in to ignite a gas tank -
- I see you too willfully CHOOSE to ignore EXTREMELY OBVIOUS evidence of a torching ...
Nothing to see here, if you'd only not bother to look, move along...
She bought/was buying the car from Otondah(sp?).
Did she drive the car before early Sunday morning after getting out of jail? She was out for 1 week prior to the hit. What happened to the car during that time? Where was it parked? Who had access to it?
Did the ME guys have a tip that they were going to be arrested?
What did the neighbors of this woman's family (if any, I don't know how rural her family's house is) see on Saturday? Was the house/car unattended for some part of the day?
Or was the device already planted before he sold the car to her with a remote activation of some type already installed? Did the arrest simply force someone's hand? Was the hit pre-planned to get rid of her and the arrests are the only reason this wasn't classified as a regular accident? And, if this is so, does it mean that there are independent cells at work? In other words, the order to get rid of her may have come before they were arrested - could have been transmitted by one of the 5 in custody when they thought they would get the licenses with no way to recall the order once issued?
It was designed to be an arson/murder - to the trained eye and trained fire-fighters it OBVIOUSLY looks/looked that way too ...
You have all the answer's ....enlighten us..
Probably so. But Ms. Smith had to already be unconscious. She was doused with gasoline, remember, so that she couldn't have been driving. Thus, somebody else had to get the car started and moving.
AGAIN, there will be charred REMAINS of some 'device' ...
I guess you people don't "burn your own trash" anymore -
- or you'd have a better idea of WHAT is LEFT after an attempt at incineration ...
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