Investigators Obtain DNA From Widow of Bombing Suspect
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and SERGE F. KOVALESKI
Federal authorities are closely scrutinizing the activities of the wife of
the dead Boston Marathon bombing suspect in the days before and after the
attacks.
The authorities are looking at a range of possibilities, two senior law
enforcement officials said, including that she could have - wittingly or
unwittingly - destroyed evidence, helped the bombers evade capture or even
played a role in planning the attacks. As part of the investigation, F.B.I.
agents are trying to determine whether female DNA found on a piece of a
pressure cooker used as an explosive device in the attacks was from
Katherine Russell, the wife of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, according to the
officials.
One of the officials said that a fingerprint had also been found on a bomb
fragment and that investigators had tried to collect DNA and fingerprint
samples from several people whom the authorities are scrutinizing in
addition to Ms. Russell.
Federal authorities took a sample of Ms. Russell's DNA on Monday in Rhode
Island, where she has been staying with her parents, the officials said.
Her lawyer, Amato A. DeLuca, was unavailable for comment but has said that
Ms. Russell was shocked when she learned that her husband and brother-in-law
were suspected of involvement in the attack, and that she was "doing
everything she can to assist with the investigation."
The focus on Ms. Russell is part of the wider effort by the F.B.I. to
determine who else may have played a role aiding the bombers. While the
authorities do not believe the bombers were tied to a larger terrorist
network or had accomplices, they remain skeptical that others did not know
of their plans or did not help them destroy evidence.
Ms. Russell, 24, grew up in North Kingston, R.I., and is the daughter of a
physician. Her lawyer has said she met Mr. Tsarnaev while she was a student
at Suffolk University. She converted to Islam and married Mr. Tsarnaev in an
Islamic ceremony at a mosque in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston in
June 2010.
Mr. DeLuca has said that Ms. Russell does not speak Russian, so she could
not always understand what her husband was saying.
On Monday, another lawyer was added to the defense team of the surviving
bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. Judy Clarke, one of the nation's
foremost experts in death penalty cases, took the case at the behest of Mr.
Tsarnaev's three federal public defenders, who believed they did not have
adequate expertise in capital cases.
Ms. Clarke's past clients include Susan Smith, who was convicted of drowning
her two children, Theodore J. Kaczynski, the Unabomber, and Jared Loughner,
who killed six people at an event held by Representative Gabrielle Giffords
in Arizona. All avoided the death penalty and received life sentences
instead.
"In light of the circumstances in this case, the defendant requires an
attorney with more background, knowledge and experience in federal death
penalty cases than that possessed by current counsel," federal Magistrate
Judge Marianne B. Bowler wrote in her order appointing Ms. Clarke, who is
based in San Diego.
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