Richard Essex/Eyewitness News
Lafayette - Time is running out to find the person who tried to blow up an Indiana courthouse a decade ago.
"August 2nd, 1998, 10:09 pm, just a little bit after 10 o'clock, the call originally comes in as a fire. Smoke coming from the courthouse," said Tippecanoe County Sheriff Tracy Brown.
Whoever it was that drove a truck, designed to explode in the Tippecanoe County Courthouse, may never face charges.
"A crime of this magnitude, somebody out there has to have information that would be pertinent to this investigation," Sheriff Brown said.
The bed of the truck was filled with barrels designed to explode, but didn't.
"I'm told by the investigators who were involved with the case nearly ten years ago that, had that bomb ignited and been successful in the ignition process, that we would have had substantial devastation of our downtown area," Sheriff Brown said.
On August 2, 2008, the ten-year anniversary of the attempted bombing, the statute of limitations runs out.
"That person would escape prosecution, which would be a travesty," Sheriff Brown said.
There are no physical marks left on the building, though concrete and steel posts keep someone from trying to drive a truck bomb in the same entrance the 1998 attacker used. Also, not just anyone can enter the side entrance, where eight deputies guard the doors. There were just two deputies posted at the entrance at the time of the bombing.
Investigators say several people have been questioned and leads keep coming in, but no one has been arrested.
"We may never know who was responsible for this," Sheriff Brown said.
