Locals Not Rushing to Help Catch Rudolph

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Eric Robert Rudolph won't be found unless his pursuers get help from someone who knows the local mountains as well as the fugitive, say the residents of Macon County, N.C. "And right now, nobody seems to be in any hurry to help the feds," says TIME Atlanta bureau chief Sylvester Monroe. "The local people are not exactly warm to the federal agents or the media who have descended on the area and disrupted their way of life." A number of local people have even candidly told media representatives that, given the opportunity, they wouldn't turn Rudolph in. It's not that they endorse the blowing up of an Alabama abortion clinic for which Rudolph is wanted, notes Monroe -- they're simply not convinced he's guilty.

"The federal agents are clearly not getting the kind of help that they need from the locals," says Monroe. "And that appears to leave them no closer to catching Rudolph than they were when he first went on the run six months ago."