By Alabama Public Radio
Tuscaloosa, AL – Authorities investigating the recent church fires across parts of rural Alabama are trying to keep new information coming in. And part of that effort involves preventing the public from focusing too much on the dark-colored SUV that was seen in the area of some of the fires. A wrongly identified vehicle severely hampered efforts to catch the Washington-area sniper back in 2002. Jim Cavanaugh, regional director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, says witnesses have reported seeing other kinds of vehicles. Cavanaugh says if people become too concerned with spotting one type of vehicle that they miss other information that could be important to the case. Meanwhile, authorities have been gathering evidence ... some of which apparently suggests the arsonists may have been briefly trapped during one of the fires and may have been hurt. The suspects are thought to be white males in their 20s or 30s.