FBI agents on Sunday searched a Utah house as well as three storage units linked to a man whose hospitalization led to the discovery of deadly ricin in a motel room he had occupied on the Las Vegas Strip.
The search of the home and units at a self-storage facility outside Salt Lake City was expected to be a long, tedious process as agents operated carefully at sites where they could find the dangerous substance, FBI spokesman Juan Becerra said.
No results of the ongoing searches were announced at a press conference late Sunday morning, but FBI Special Agent Timothy Fuhrman said "There is no indication of any terrorist act or activity. But I will say that's something we continue to look at."
Roger Von Bergendorff, the focus of the investigation, had lived in the Riverton house for more than a year before moving to Las Vegas about a year ago, said Tammy Ewell, who lives across the street.
"He just barely got by in life. He'd just barely make it," Ewell said Saturday of the 57-year-old Von Bergendorff.
He lived there with his cousin Thomas Tholen and his wife, said Ewell, who described the couple as close friends.
What is Ricin?
Von Bergendorff was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 14 with breathing problems. He is now in critical condition and police sources say he has slipped into a coma, possibly from exposure to the ricin. Police say they don't think foul play is involved, however they are still investigating why the man had ricin in his room.
On Feb. 22, one of Von Bergendorff's family members called the hotel to notify them that there were pets in the room. The cats were removed from the room and the dog, who was in poor health, was destroyed.
Police say they were summoned to his room on Feb. 26, 2008 after apartment management called them to remove some firearms. The managers were going forward with eviction proceedings when they found guns and an anarchist-type textbook.
Add your comments to the LasVegasNOW Blog
When police arrived, they noted the ricin section of the textbook was highlighted. Officers called Metro's bomb squad to check out the room, but they found no evidence of ricin.
On Feb. 28, Thomas Tholen, a cousin of Von Bergendorff's, found vials of ricin while cleaning out the room. He showed the vials to hotel management prompting a huge response by police and medical services.
Seven people were sent to the hospital to be tested for poisoning, including three officers who first responded to the 911 call. All seven people are fine and have been released from the hospital. There was also a dog and two cats found in the room. The cats survived, but the dog had to be put down because of starvation.
Several federal and local agencies are involved in the investigation. The incident happened at the Extended Stay America Hotel, not far from the Las Vegas Strip. The hotel is located on Valley View between Flamingo and Harmon.
"Ricin is very serious. Something as small as the size of a pin can be deadly. An individual citizen, other than being involved in cancer research or cancer prevention, would not have any legal means or proper means to have it," said Metro Homeland Security Capt. Joe Lombardo.
Lombardo says the ricin was in powder form and also some of it was in castor bean form. Police say there were several vials of the toxin in a plastic bag and it may have been there for more than two weeks.
"I want to assure everyone the valley is safe we don't have any threat of contamination threat," said Lombardo.
Police say the relative who turned in the ricin also stayed at Excalibur Hotel. As a precaution, Metro went to the hotel and made sure there was no contamination.
"This was precautionary. It would be irresponsible of us not to respond to Excalibur and conduct tests to see if there was ricin," said Capt. Lombardo.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says ricin is a powerful poison made from castor beans. It has some legitimate medical uses but it has most recently made news as a terrorist weapon.
Accidental exposure is very unlikely. It takes a deliberate act to make ricin and use it as a poison.
Meanwhile, as police and even the National Guard converged on the Extended Stay America, guests were locked out with no place to go.
Eyewitness News talked with Dennis Clark, who was locked in his room for hours, not knowing what was going on.
"You have it blocked up here and you are letting me walk around here, and she says, "Well, we are not really. You either go back into your room or you have to leave." and I said, "You are sure it is safe to stay?" and she said, "Yes, it is not a problem. We only have it blocked off to here." He said.
Friday morning, Eyewitness News caught up with Chad McEwan and his wife Darbi. They were married on Wednesday, just one day before the scare. They say their honeymoon is ruined. Luckily, Chad's mother lives in Las Vegas, so they stayed on her pull out bed -- not the honeymoon either had hoped for.
"Aww, she was pissed. We were panicking. Couldn't get to our room. We were tired," said McEwan.
Eddie Moreira did not get back to his room until 3 a.m., too. He works for an events company and had a large moving van parked nearby. He was upset no one from Extended Stay or the police told him what was happening.
"Are you in Russia or something? You can't have access to information and nobody can tell you anything," said Moreira.
No one from Extended Stay's local or national office had any comment Friday. A few of the guests did get refunds on their reservations, but many went elsewhere.
Ricin has been used in attacks overseas before, but Metro stresses this does not appear to be an act of terror.
(Associated Press contributed to this report)
Several federal and local agencies are involved in the investigation.
The incident happened at the Extended Stay America Hotel, not far from the Las Vegas Strip.
A lengthy process of decontamination and cleansing took place at the hotel.
Investigators search Utah home and remove items.
