FREDERICK, Maryland (28 Jan 2003) -- Scuba divers working with the FBI resumed their search of a series of small ponds in the Catoctin Mountains on Monday. The agents brought an inflatable boat, video monitors and special tents south to another pond in the City of Frederick Municipal Forest. Investigators cut five to six holes in the pond's frozen surface and divers were seen entering and exiting the freezing water. Flight restrictions and roadblocks surrounding the remote part of the Frederick city watershed also returned Monday morning. Flight restrictions imposed last week had been lifted Friday. FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman said Monday that no new information about the investigation was available. The FBI acknowledges that the investigation is related to the deadly anthrax letters mailed in October 2001 and says there is no indication of any threat to public health or safety based on previously conducted water testing. The area that investigators are searching, about one mile east of the 11000 block of Gambrill Park Road and a quarter mile west of Fishing Creek Road, can be reached via a fire trail along a blocked section of Fishing Creek Road. A roadblock, installed at the intersection of Fishing Creek Road and Mountaindale Road, was one of several surrounding the pond. Unmarked four-wheel drive vehicles with District of Columbia license plates also blocked Hamburg Road in two places: At its intersection with Gambrill Park Road and at its southeastern end near Quartet Lane. | | Scuba divers enter large holes cut in the frozen surface. Nearly 50 persons, many in diving apparatus, were seen working in and around a number of holes cut in the ice. This is the second straight month that the FBI has been searching the watershed. Photographers captured images in late December of divers searching two side-by-side ponds farther north in the forest. City officials said the FBI has been keeping them abreast of the investigation's progress. Frederick Police Chief Kim Dine said the police have a "good working relationship" and that the FBI has provided him with daily briefings since December. "They don't tell me about every step, because obviously, it's not our investigation," said Chief Dine. SOURCE - eNews |
