Feds Investigate Second Man in Ricin Letter Case

Maybe they'll get the right guy this time

A second Mississippi man investigated in connection to ricin-laced letters sent to the president and a U.S. senator said Wednesday that investigators "ripped" through his house during an hours-long search the previous day after charges were dropped against another man in the case.

No investigators appeared to be at the Tupelo home Wednesday morning, and Everett Dutschke said he'd gone to a friend's house to rest. Piles of items could be seen all over the floor through the window. The home was searched Tuesday by dozens of officials, some in hazmat suits, from early in the afternoon until about 11 p.m. CDT. Officials declined to comment on what they had found or on the next phase of the investigation.

At one point, two FBI agents and two members of the state's chemical response team left Dutschke's property and began combing through ditches, culverts and woods about a block away from his house in the neighborhood of single-family detached homes.