* Bomb fragments being reconstructed at FBI laboratory
* Crime scene photos show charred, twisted remains of device
* Obama going to Boston on Thursday for memorial service
* 8-year-old boy among 3 dead, at least 176 injured
By Scott Malone
BOSTON, April 17 (Reuters) – Boston Marathon bombing
investigators on Wednesday entered the third day of their hunt
with an emerging picture of the target: a suspect or suspects
carrying heavy bags or backpacks made of dark nylon.
While still unable to conclude whether a group or
individuals were responsible for the attacks that killed three
people and wounded 176, and whether they were foreign or
American, investigators gathered enough evidence at the crime
scene on Tuesday to slightly narrow their search.
The two blasts struck seconds apart on Monday at the finish
line of the race, maiming victims with shrapnel-packed bombs
that investigators suspect were contained in pressure cookers.
Seventeen people remained in critical condition.
President Barack Obama, who will travel to Boston on
Thursday for a memorial service, has called the bombings an “act
of terror.” It was the worst bombings on U.S. soil since
security was stepped up following the suicide hijack attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001.
No suspects were in custody and there were no claims of
responsibility.
Evidence collected at the scene was being reconstructed at
the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, said Richard
DesLauriers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s special agent
in charge in Boston.
Among the items recovered were pieces of black nylon that
could be from a backpack, fragments of ball bearings and nails,
and possibly the remains of a pressure cooker device,
DesLauriers said.
Bomb scene pictures produced by the Boston Joint Terrorism
Task Force and released on Tuesday show the remains of an
explosive device including twisted pieces of a metal container,
wires, a battery and what appears to be a small circuit board.
One picture shows a few inches of charred wire attached to a
small box, and another depicts a half-inch (1.3 cm) nail and a
zipper head stained with blood. Another shows a Tenergy-brand
battery attached to black and red wires through a broken plastic
cap. Several photos show a twisted metal lid with bolts.
A U.S. government official, who declined to be identified,
made the pictures available to Reuters.
In addition, Boston’s WHDH television showed a picture of an
unattended, light-colored bag on the ground right at one of the
bomb sites before the explosion. The bag was gone in a picture
from a similar angle taken after the blasts. Authorities had yet
to comment publicly on the significance of the pictures.
The youngest to die was an 8-year-old boy, Martin Richard,
from the city’s Dorchester neighborhood.
Officials identified a second person killed as Krystle
Campbell, 29, of Medford, Massachusetts.
The third fatal victim was a Chinese citizen whose identity
was not being made public at the request of the victim’s family,
the Chinese Consulate in New York said in a statement. The
victim was a graduate student at Boston University, the
university said in a statement.
(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Philip Barbara)
