they were made. it's very unusual. >> that's just the type of circumstantial evidence that you just don't get every day, that you just don't see every day, that people can look at it, and see it, touch it and relate to it. oakwood, illinois is a quiet, small town of less than a thousand residents. and little, if any, violent crime.

at the oakwood methodist church, as volunteers prepared for their christmas celebration, church member brian plawer walked outside, where something caught his attention. >> no no, some of us thought a vehicle had moved into the church. >> we got there right after the first responders. their decision was it was a gas explosion. >> 46-year-old brian plawer was killed instantly, he left behind a wife and children. >> very kind, brian never met anybody he didn't like. >> bill adam's daughter walked out just moments before the explosion. >> it is by pure chance that it could have been my daughter, you know?

i have often thought that brian took what could have happened to my daughter. >> agents from the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms were called in to investigate. >> we found metal fragments and pieces of pipe, pieces of wire. we found batteries. we did find 9 volt batteries. we picked up everything. >> this clearly eliminated a gasoline explosion. these were the ingredients of a pipe bomb, a homemade device that with gun powder is packed into a steel pipe, closed with metal ends. in this case, fragments of red painted end cap were found in the rubble, along with the 30-gauge silver-coated copper wire. >> this was not a very common wire, it would be a particular signature of the bomber. >> a signature is something unusual or unique left by the bomber, often without knowing

it. >> we actually found a piece of green plastic that had a label on it. it said igloo legends, which is a cooler. >> this man, the pipe bomb was inside the cooler, activated with a trip wire. investigators did not believe that the victim was the intended target. >> it was very apparent to us that this was very random. there was nothing in mr. flower's background to indicate him being the target of a crime. >> after some digging, investigators learned two important pieces of information. first, the only store within 25 miles had sold 30-gauge blue insulated silver-coated copper wire was the local radio shack electronics store. >> since only one merchandiser sold that wire, if they kept records of their transactions

that that could prove helpful in getting a lead. >> and there was only one store that sold the igloo brand legend 12 cooler. >> we found out that that color scheme was only sold at walmart. so that narrowed our focus, then, on where that cooler could have been purchased. >> then, investigators got an anonymous tip that two students at oakwood high school might have been involved. >> one of them had a past criminal history with one of the offenses being arson. >> one of the subjects had been seen in possession of a notebook that had handwritten on the front of it bomb recipes. >> the teenagers, 18-year-old jimmy morris and 16-year-old phil ryan had no alibis at the time of of the explosion. >> at first, they said they drove by, and then they said

they were there within moments and found brian just within moments of the explosion. >> from a photo lineup, the employees at the store identified jimmy as having been in their store, but couldn't recall what he purchased. >> everything that the investigation showed about the teenagers indicated that they could be involved in it. >> investigators also learned that the boys were heavily involved in the game dungeons and dragons, a fantasy-oriented game played by millions. >> there had been across the country instances where the role-playing within the game of dungeons and dragons had turned violent in real life.

>> both teenagers denied involvement in the bombing. and were given polygraphs. >> the tests indicated they were giving deceptive answers. >> eventually they both implicated the other. >> both subjects stated they saw the other subject in possession of a green cooler. >> it looked like investigators had solved the case. until there was another bombing, just five miles away. ♪ must be the honey! ♪ there's a party going on in your cereal bowl ♪ ♪ o's can help lower cholesterol ♪ ♪ oh why does it taste so great? ♪ ♪ hey! must be the honey! ♪ oh why does it taste so great? ♪ thmortgage didn't start here. it began on her vacation in europe.

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the first assembly of god church in danville, illinois, was located five miles away from the location of the first bombing. >> the last injured 33 people. >> when we first arrived.

there was a hole, it was unbelievable. >> the first explosion happened near the pews, 33 people were injured. >> they had shrapnel that was imbedded in their face, some in their ears. this was just an explosion of such a powerful magnitude that the debris rained down on them. >> just something you don't see every day, involving two churches. you don't see a lot of crime against churches. >> the atf looked everywhere for pieces of the explosive device. >> we found evidence on top of buildings, everywhere. there was just -- the debris field was huge. >> thankfully, the atf investigators found more than 20 different bombing components,

which enabled them to build a replica. this was turned by a bomb, this was more powerful than the first. >> there were a lot of decisions there, it left you with alternatives, either experimenting or graduating to bigger and better things, or there were two separate people that made these devices. >> to find out, forensic examiners looked at the wires from the second bomb site. was this the same signature wire used in the first bomb? >> it was a silver-coated single strand copper wire with blue insulation. >> it was 30 gauge, it was a very small wire. >> but was it the same wire? atf examiner examined the

extrusion mark, made during the examining process. this process makes the wire its uniform size. >> those marks will be imparted on the plastic element before it changes dramatically. >> looking at it on a comparison microscope, there was no doubt the wire from both bomb sites came from the same source. >> in fact, these were produced on the same diet, the same plant. >> they also discovered both bombs used the same glue and the same cotton string. since both bombs appeared to be made by the same individual, this eliminated jimmy morris and phil ryan. they both had solid alibis for the second bombing. but why did these boys implicate themselves in the first place?

>> they offered an explanation that they were doing this because they were playing this dungeons and dragons game. >> they really spent a lot of time wasting the time of investigators. >> i thought that was an incredibly stupid thing to do. >> then a witness came forward saying she had seen a white male walking a german shepherd dog near the church parking lot a few hours before the first bombing. she remembered the dog had a brown leather collar with a brass name tag on it, but she couldn't provide a description of the man. was this the break investigators needed? female announcer: during sleep train's big gift event

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after two high school students were eliminated as suspects, the atf continued to search for leads. they suspected that the blue copper wire was purchased at the local radio shack store. unfortunately, most customers who bought this wire paid cash. so this was a dead end. the pipe had been inside the plastic cooler, sold only in walmart stores. of the 100 sold, only three were purchased with a credit card or check.

those individuals were interviewed and cleared. >> we were unable to associate that cooler with anyone that could be considered a person of interest. >> all of the other bomb components were common. and could have been purchased anywhere. but investigators needed to find the bomber before he could strike again. since his devices were getting more sophisticated. >> we did feel that this was an escalation. it was a bigger device. it happened when more people were present. >> then, a tipster came forward. a member of the church where this second bombing took place. >> the member of the church came up to us and said i don't know if this means much. but there was this gentleman by the name of mr. white that i know and he had actually attended the church approximately five to six years prior. and had tried to get into the church, and become a member and had been turned down.

>> 40-year-old white lived just a mile from the turn with his mother and his teenage daughter. >> we were told that richard white was somebody you didn't want to mess with. >> a background check revealed a troubled past. white was the high school dropout. and spent time in the u.s. army, but was discharged after only six weeks. later, he spent time in four different psychiatric hospitals where he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. eventually white got married and landed a job with general motors. his marriage ended after just six months, and he was laid off from his job in 1987. >> he was not able to retain friends or any relationships.

and really was forced to move back home with his mother. >> white's psychiatric problems may have been the reason why the danville church rejected his application for membership. >> there has to be an agreement between the board, and with some of the things that happened that was attributed to him, we didn't think that that would be quite what we wanted at that particular time. >> investigators also learned that rick's ex-wife was a member of the oakwood united methodist church where the first bombing took place. >> i felt like he was trying to strike out against her and get even with her, at the time that it happened. >> then, four days after the second church bombing, before investigators could interview rick white, there was another bombing. this time, in the residential neighborhood several miles away. >> bomb number three. what are we going to do now?

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after two bombings and five months of investigation, the atf finally had a potential suspect in rick white. a background check revealed white had a history of psychiatric problems. >> i don't know that he had problems making friends. i just don't think rick wanted friends.

his dog was his friend. and so that satisfied rick. >> so investigators decided to pay white a visit. they asked rick white's mother if they could speak to him. >> is richard home? we need to speak with him. >> investigators found the garage behind the white's home in ruins. >> there was one victim inside the building, along with a dog. a large dog. >> the victim had been decapitated. a driver's license found on the work bench identified him as richard white. >> we did not know if we had a victim or a suspect. >> but that question was answered as investigators sifted through the rubble. >> there were parts of bombs in there in the process of being made. and tools, wiring, all kinds of

things that you could use to make pipe bombs. circumstantial evidence would indicate that he intended to kill himself. to avoid having to talk to the police. >> next to white's body was his german shepherd dog. it matched the description of the dog given by the witness near the first bomb site. >> he was obviously clutching the bomb close to his body. and he had his one friend in the world there with him. his other arm around his dog. >> also, in the garage investigators found blue silver coated wire. the kind used in the two church bombings. they also found a pair of wire cutters. scientists compared the tool marks from white's wire cutters

to the tool marks on the copper wire found at the danville bomb site. >> from that comparison, i was able to conclude that the diagonal cutter that we recovered in richard white's garage was in fact the cutter that was found on the danville device. >> this was forensic proof that white was the bomber. >> we found an area of the garage that had red spray paint on it. and contained on that red spray paint were perfectly round circles. the reason that was important was the device that killed mr. plawer was a device with end caps on it that were painted red with a gold coating. >> but questions remain. why did rick white target churches? investigators believe white was

angry at the first assembly of god church for turning down his membership application. but he couldn't bomb that church, at least not right away. it would have been too obvious. so he chose the oakwood united methodist church as first choice, possibly because his ex-wife was a member. >> he was experimenting. he was trying to get different things to work, different initiators for the device. >> the forensic evidence shows that white placed the first bomb in a green cooler, not caring who picked it up. church member brian plawer was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. in the first assembly of god church bombing, white used a stronger bomb since this was his primary target.

he placed the bomb on top of an outdoor air conditioner, this one had a timer designed to explode during the sunday service. 33 people were injured. in october of 1998, a grand jury concluded richard white built both bombs and murdered brian plawer. the forensic evidence left no doubt. >> these investigations did not result in the prosecution. it was closure for the victims' families. >> it doesn't make the hurt less. you know, there is still pain. there is still, you know, anger. there is still hurt, and loss and grief that continues and continues and continues.

>> with the bombing, the misconception is the blast destroys the evidence. the blast disperses the evidence, where it makes it harder for us to find it. but we'll find it.