Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 21, 1993 TAG: 9305210213
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHY FAIR HOUSTON CHRONICLE
DATELINE: DALLAS LENGTH: Medium
Forensic experts - examining the charred remains of Branch Davidian members who were fatally shot, crushed, suffocated or burned in cult leader David Koresh's long-prophesied apocalyptic showdown with law enforcement agents - have constructed a partial theory of what happened shortly after noon on April 19.
As stiff prairie winds spread the fire that two - possibly three - cult members simultaneously started, cult second-in-command Steven Emil Schneider sat in the compound's communications room with would-be messiah Koresh.
Schneider - who had given everything, including his wife, to Koresh - leveled a rifle at the center of Koresh's forehead and pulled the trigger.
Then, Schneider, 48, a one-time professor of comparative religion, propped the muzzle beneath his chin and pulled the trigger a second time, a source involved in identification of the victims said.
The charred bodies of the 12 youngest children were found in their mothers' arms. Some of the other children - 25 in the compound at the time of the fire were minors - may have been shot, but that has not been determined, authorities said.
Some adults spent their final minutes feverishly firing at the FBI. Earlier in the day, authorities reported, Branch Davidian cultists futilely fired at the lumbering tanklike vehicles that punched holes in the compound walls to inject tear gas.
One victim - a woman - was found wearing a gas mask. In her hand was an ammunition clip. Still another victim was found wearing an ammunition belt. Guns were omnipresent in the building - often found beside the burned remains of cultists. But authorities are hard pressed to know if their final use was suicide or combat.
Authorities may never be able to determine how many cultists died by gunfire, said FBI Agent Richard Swensen of New Orleans. The heads of at least 12 victims could not be found, one person involved in the investigation said.
For those who weren't shot, death from smoke inhalation or burns was certain - and quick.
Carbon monoxide in smoke, one pathologist said, would quickly render a victim unconscious.
"Then the reasonable conclusion is that there is no sensation at all," he said. "No more than when they're asleep."
Investigators have repeatedly been jarred by the ironies - the cruelties - of the conflagration. During the 51-day standoff with Koresh and his followers, FBI negotiators were heartened by a videotape released by the cult leader showing 16 children in relatively good health.
In the tape, Koresh dandled his 4-year-old daughter Serenity Sea Jones on his knee. The child looked into the camera and thanked federal agents for a shipment of milk. "I'd like to have some ice cream," she added, telegraphing to authorities that her father apparently had kept an earlier gift of ice cream for himself.
Now the tape is a key aid to identifying the charred bodies of children. Authorities hope some incidental clue - body size, the color of a shoe - will help them assign names to the littlest victims.
The Mount Carmel compound is now a blackened spot on the Central Texas Prairie - detectable primarily as a patch of charred and new-turned earth. The few standing portions of the building have been razed; the site quarantined as a hazard to public health.
The next chapter of the Branch Davidian story will be played out in federal courts and in the nation's capital, where federal conduct during the ordeal will be scrutinized.
But the horror will live in the hearts and minds of those who were there, in their words as they struggle to explain to those who weren't.
"I have started having nightmares," one woman connected with the investigation said.
On Wednesday, McLennan County authorities released the identities of four more victims:
Yvette Fagan, thought to have been in her early 30s. Preliminary cause of death: smoke and carbon monoxide inhalation with extensive charring, possible gunshot wound to head. Her body was located in the kitchen serving area.
Pablo (Pavlo) Cohen, 28, Israeli citizen whose body was found atop a concrete bunker. Preliminary cause of death: smoke and carbon monoxide inhalation with extensive charring.
Jaydean Cornwell Wendel, 34, a former Honolulu police officer believed to have been killed in the Feb. 28 gunfight with federal agents. The location where her body was recovered was not released.
Rebecca Saipaia, 24, whose body was found on top of the bunker. Ruling on cause of death is pending. Her body was released to relatives in New Zealand.
by CNB