Oklahoma City Bombing Case Study

The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 was one of the worst mass murders in our history now let’s start reviewing some of the key factors in the case. On the morning of April 19, 1995, the Alfred P. Murrah federal building blew up near 9:02 a.m. A Ryder truck was the bomb that was parked in front of the building and the driver left the truck on feet. The truck exploded, being triggered remotely shortly after 09:00 a.m. A man by the name of Timothy McVeigh was stopped 90 minutes after the bombing by a state trooper for license plates missing on his Mercury Marquis. The officer noticed that McVeigh had possession of a weapon but no license to carry and took him into custody and later identified two accomplices (fbi.gov, 1995). The authorities found a piece of evidence from the Ryder truck that assisted with tracing the rental agreement back to a Robert Kling, which was Timothy McVeigh’s alias. Further details linked McVeigh’s friend, Terry Nichols because his address was used for the truck rental. Fingerprints were later found on a sales receipt for explosive ingredients, ammonium nitrate. Forensic evidence identified PETN residue on Timothy McVeigh’s clothing. As a result from the bombing, 168 people were killed which included 19 children and infants. Timothy McVeigh was named the primary suspect in the case. McVeigh was found guilty and

Forensic science in this case played a significant role for capturing these three suspects and the conviction of all three suspects. However, the authorities never stated if the bomb was military type bomb or a homemade bomb. Timothy was in the Army and was very experienced in this field but Nichols assisted with building the bomb according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Why wasn’t Nichols disclosed like Timothy’s, and why Fortier’s background wasn’t disclosed to the public (fbi.gov,