Former Green Beret Col. James “Bo” Gritz and his volunteers packed their tents and sleeping bags Friday and headed home after failing to find bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph.
Making good on a pledge to offer the survivalist a week to surrender peacefully and avert a potentially bloody confrontation with FBI agents, Gritz ordered his troops to break their paramilitary camp outside Andrews, where Rudolph is believed hiding in thick forests.
“We’ve still got some teams up there. One is in deep penetration, hiding under leaves and observing radio silence. But they’re all coming in today. (Rudolph) ain’t here,” said Bobby Steward, a retired Green Beret and a Gritz confidant.
One of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives, Rudolph faces charges stemming from the Jan. 29 bombing of an Alabama abortion clinic that killed an off-duty police officer and critically injured a clinic nurse.
He also is wanted for questioning about three similar Atlanta-area blasts, including the July 1996 bombing of Olympic Centennial Park that killed a Georgia woman.
