Kathy Sanders lost her two young grandsons, Chase (3) and Colton (2), in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people; for 30 years she has investigated the attack and concluded the official story — that Timothy McVeigh acted alone with Terry Nichols — is a lie, and that the government knew more than it admitted.
The Bombing and Personal Loss
On April 19, 1995, Sanders woke to find her grandsons had spent the night in their mother Edie’s bedroom; the family’s morning routine ended when Edie went to work at the Murrah building for an office birthday party.
Sanders heard a massive explosion two floors above Edie’s office; they ran toward the building, saw smoke rising, and found the daycare center reduced to a “pancake pile of rubble.”
Edie’s son Danny, an off-duty police officer, found Colton’s body first, then discovered Edie’s older son had also been killed; Sanders describes the moment as the first time her daughter faced a problem she could not fix.
Early Suspicions: Bomb Squad Sightings and Foreknowledge
Within days, multiple witnesses — including a mother dropping off her child — reported seeing a bomb squad truck and bomb-sniffing dogs at the Murrah building the morning of the bombing, before the explosion.
Sanders’s husband confronted the fire chief, who denied any bomb squad presence; as they left, the fire dispatcher said, “I’m not going to lie for anyone,” and revealed his office had received a memorandum the prior week to be on high alert for terrorist activity in downtown Oklahoma City.
The federal courthouse had received the same alert; no one warned the public or the daycare families.
Sanders later learned an ATF informant, Carol Howe, living at Elohim City, had warned her handler beginning in December 1994 that she and two others (including Andreas Strassmeir) had made three trips to Oklahoma City and Tulsa to target buildings for bombing.
McVeigh called Elohim City two minutes after calling the Ryder truck rental company, asking for Strassmeir; the FBI never interviewed Strassmeir in person, only a telephone interview a year later after he returned to Germany.
John Doe No. 2 and Witness Accounts
The FBI initially conducted the largest manhunt in U.S. history for “John Doe No. 2,” McVeigh’s accomplice seen with him at the Ryder truck rental; a $2 million reward was offered.
Within weeks, the FBI declared John Doe No. 2 a mistake and claimed the rental clerk was mistaken.
Sanders worked with McVeigh’s defense attorney, Stephen Jones, and obtained over 20 witness statements (FBI 302s) placing McVeigh downtown that morning with another man:
Rodney Johnson, a catering delivery driver, saw McVeigh walking across the street with a man.
Jeff Davis delivered Chinese food to McVeigh’s Dreamland Motel room in Junction City; the man who answered the door was not McVeigh.
Dana Bradley, injured in the bombing, testified she saw the Ryder truck pull up, McVeigh get out, and a passenger exit and run away; the FBI dismissed her as traumatized.
Mike Moroz at Johnny’s Tires saw McVeigh jump out of the truck, keep him away from the cargo area, ask directions to Fifth and Harvey, then drive off with another man.
Danny Wilkinson at the Regency Tower saw McVeigh buy two Cokes and a pack of Marlboro Reds (McVeigh did not smoke).
The prosecution called none of these witnesses at trial because each placed McVeigh with another person.
Elohim City Connections and ATF Informant
Elohim City, a compound on the Oklahoma-Arkansas border (Hebrew for “City of God”), was home to white supremacists, bank robbers, and Andreas Strassmeir, a German national.
ATF informant Carol Howe reported that Strassmeir, Dennis Mahon, and she had scouted Oklahoma City targets; the FBI never interviewed Strassmeir despite McVeigh’s call to him.
Richard Wayne Snell, a member of the Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord, had planned to blow up the Murrah building 10 years earlier in revenge for a 1985 FBI raid on his compound; he was executed in Arkansas on April 19, 1995 — the same day as the bombing — and reportedly smiled and chuckled watching the news of the attack; his spiritual advisor was Robert Millar, head of Elohim City, and he was buried there.
ATF Visit to Sanders and Inconsistencies
On May 23, 1995, after the Murrah building was imploded, ATF Director Pat Ryan and agents including Luke Franey visited Sanders’s home to “calm them down.”
Franey claimed he had been stranded on the ninth floor and karate-chopped his way out, injuring his hand; an AP photo showed him on the ninth floor holding a silver lock box amid the rubble.
When asked what was in the box, Franey refused to say; later, former FBI agent Hal Francis learned Franey claimed it contained $150 of his children’s savings bonds — an explanation Sanders found implausible given the circumstances.
Two other ATF agents claimed they free-fell in an elevator from the ninth floor to the first and pried the doors open; Sanders’s husband, a CPA for the elevator company, confirmed with the company that no elevator had been pried open and a free-fall from that height would have been fatal.
ATF payroll records showed agents brought in the night before the bombing for a “sting operation,” though they would not confirm it was at the Murrah building; Sanders theorizes they expected the bombing in the early hours, called the bomb squad for a sweep when it didn’t happen, then allowed people to enter.
McVeigh’s Accomplices and Plea Deals
Terry Nichols was in Herington, Kansas, the morning of the bombing; he remains in prison.
Michael Fortier cut a plea deal, served 10 years, and entered witness protection despite being caught lying under oath three times; his wife never spent a night in prison and testified she watched McVeigh demonstrate the bomb configuration with Campbell’s soup cans.
McVeigh’s sister, Jennifer, also cut a deal, testified against her brother, and admitted laundering $100 bills McVeigh said came from bank robberies — linking to the Midwest Bank Robbers operating out of Elohim City.
Sanders’s Conversation With McVeigh’s Sister
Sanders invited Jennifer McVeigh to dinner; when asked about her brother’s politics, Jennifer claimed he never discussed them, though Sanders knew this was false (the FBI’s first visit found Jennifer burning letters from Tim on her grill).
Jennifer refused to discuss her role, saying her lawyer forbade it; she asked Sanders to write to Michael Fortier in prison, which Sanders did, but found his reply deceptive.
Sanders’s Eerie Visit to Elohim City
Sanders and Edie drove to Elohim City to attend the required noon church service; armed guards approached their car with guns drawn.
Inside, the “Iron Cross band” played while armed men sang “glory and guns to God”; Reverend Millar welcomed them, and the congregation gave a standing ovation when Sanders identified them as “ATF’s worst nightmare.”
They were given a tour, shown Strassmeir’s and Mahon’s homes, but were refused access to Snell’s burial site.
Sanders’s Theory of What Happened
Sanders believes the government knew via Carol Howe’s warnings; ATF agents were present the night before, possibly expecting a pre-dawn bombing; when it didn’t occur, they called the bomb squad for a sweep, then allowed the building to open.
She thinks they tried to stop it but “flubbed it up,” and the cover-up is more sinister than mere incompetence.
She emphasizes the bomb was built at Geary Lake over an entire day with multiple men present — witnessed by a retired sergeant fishing, the Dreamland Motel maid, the owner, and other guests — yet the FBI never identified or pursued them.
Conversations With the FBI (Danny Coulson)
Ten years post-bombing, Sanders met retired FBI elite agent Danny Coulson at a Motel 6 with her binders of evidence.
Coulson examined her materials (Howe’s warnings, Jennifer McVeigh’s confession, the Midwest Bank Robbers at Elohim City, Strassmeir’s connection) and said, “That explains it.”
He revealed he had been placed on paid leave for 10 years after the bombing and knew nothing of these leads; he told Sanders a federal grand jury was the only way to get the truth, but Terry Nichols would not agree to push for one.
Coulson warned her: “Aren’t you afraid? The people you could get convicted and possibly put to death.”
Forgiveness and Correspondence With Terry Nichols
Sanders chose to forgive McVeigh and Nichols, not as an event but a process, praying for them after reading the Lord’s Prayer; she says it changed her life.
She befriended Nichols’s mother, Joyce, sitting with her during the trial; the jury forewoman said they could not give Nichols the death penalty because “we don’t know how he’s guilty, but we don’t know how guilty” — citing the unidentified men at the Dreamland Motel and Geary Lake.
Nichols wrote to Sanders from prison; they corresponded and spoke by phone; he described a jailhouse conversion to Christianity.
Sanders hosted Nichols’s son Josh (16 at the time) for four days after McVeigh’s execution; on the last day, Josh asked to visit the memorial, and Sanders stood at chairs 60 and 61 (her grandsons’ chairs) with the bomber’s son, feeling God had transformed her life.
She says John Walsh was right: she survived, and forgiveness changed the ending to her story.
