Two weeks after two bombs exploded near the Boston Marathon finish line, officials say they have found new evidence in the investigation.
Female DNA was found on at least one of the bomb components used in the Apr. 15 Boston Marathon bombings, sources told CBS News. The source said it is too early to draw conclusions from the evidence.
“No one should expect that the investigation is over,” the source told Fox News in confirming the development first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The source said it is just one piece of evidence that investigators are looking in to.
Officials familiar with the case told Wall Street Journal “there could be multiple explanations for why the DNA of someone other than the two bombing suspects” was discovered. CBS said the DNA might have come from “a marathon spectator or a clerk who sold” materials that were used to create the explosives.
Right now, the FBI has only identified two suspects in the bombings, which killed three people and injured 260 others. Those suspects are brothers, Tamerlan, 26, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who immigrated from Russia in 2002 and recently became U.S. citizens. Boston police have said Tamerlan was killed during a shootout with police on Apr. 19, but medical examiners have not yet released the older brother’s official cause of death to the public. Dzhokhar was captured alive later that same day but was badly wounded and transported to a prison medical center.
Investigators do not believe there are any other accomplices in the bombings but police have not ruled out the possibility. It has not yet been determined if the DNA discovery indicates a woman’s involvement in the Boston Marathon bombings.
Officials have visited Tamerlan’s widow, Katherine Russell, who is currently staying with her parents and 3-year-old daughter in Rhode Island, on several occasions to find out her knowledge (if any) of the attacks. Russell reported that she worked up to 80 hours per week and did not know her husband’s plans to carry out any sort of terror plot. The widow has kept a low profile since the attack, and is believed to have been living with her parents in West Kingston, R.I., since her husband was claimed to be a terrorist and was killed.
FBI authorities collected a DNA sample from Russell to compare with the female DNA found on the bomb, but Russell has not been charged with involvement in the bombing and is not a suspect at this time.