Military Expert Trails Rudolph

Former Green Beret James "Bo" Gritz and his group of searchers began their mission in the woods around Andrews, N.C., searching for accused abortion bomber Eric Rudolph.

Mother Nature was not helping the team of forty volunteers. So far they had to deal with rain, bees and other minor natural nuisances.

"They are out and back at it today. We think we're in the right area," Gene DeWalt, a spokesman for Gritz, said Sunday.

Gritz led his volunteers -- who included a 10-year-old boy, two teenage girls and about three dozen middle-aged men -- into the dense forest on Saturday in hopes of accomplishing what scores of federal agents have failed to do for seven months.

Meanwhile, Rudolph, 31, continues to elude capture. He is the prime suspect in the January 29th bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama. The blast killed an off-duty police officer and gravely wounded a clinic nurse.

Rudolph is also a suspect in the bombing at 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. That incident killed one woman. Authorities also say Rudolph may be behind other recent Atlanta bombings.

While the volunteers are working on their own, they are making up for some of the Southeast Bomb Task Force members who are no longer on the case. Their numbers, once at 200, have been cut down to less than half that amount.

The volunteers' initial foray was about 15 miles into the forest from their base camp, not far from the spot where law enforcement officers found a pickup truck used by Rudolph.

There are reports that 2 of the 40 searchers returned to camp because they could not keep up with the rest of the pack. However, a group spokesman would not comment on whether a volunteer was evacuated after bees stung him.

Gritz is expected to stay with the group until Monday; after that, they will continue on their own.

The volunteers signed an agreement to relinquish any claim to a $1 million reward offered for information leading to Rudolph's arrest. Gritz said the money would go to Rudolph's mother if the suspect gives himself up to one of the volunteers.