Hinrichs' Suicide Note Discovered On Computer

Michelle Malkin has picked up a Daily Oklahoman article that claims that the FBI discovered Hinrichs' suicide note. It was a single line of text:

The University of Oklahoma student who died in an explosion Oct. 1 left a message on his computer that he was going to quit living, his father said.
The FBI read the message to the father Friday, after he came to Oklahoma to clear out his son's university-owned apartment.

Joel "Joe" Henry Hinrichs III, an engineering student, died when his bomb went off about 100 yards from the packed football stadium during the second quarter of OU's night game against Kansas State.

Hinrichs, 21, was from Colorado Springs, Colo. He had a reputation as a loner and had struggled at times with his grades. His parents had begun divorce proceedings.

Joel Hinrichs Jr. said he understood investigators found the message on the computer screen when they arrived at the apartment.

"It was a single line of text on his computer," said the father, who lives in Colorado Springs. "The cursor was still blinking at the end."

That doesn't exactly provide motive, but would probably be sufficient for the FBI and Joint Terror Task Force to shut down their investigation since they couldn't find a clear link to a terror cell or Islamic terrorism. If that's the case, then we should hope and expect that the warrants and indictments to be unsealed. Mark Tapscott is not impressed. He wants to see how quick the search warrants are unsealed before making a final determination. We've waited two weeks while the investigation proceeded. I've been wondering about a potential suicide note of any kind for a while now, and to hear that it was a single line of text on a still open computer raises a few other questions including that if the computer was on, was there anyone else with access to the computer?

More importantly, why did investigators wait nearly two weeks to divulge the existence of a suicide note?

Generation Why is also asking questions.

The facts still aren't adding up and the timeline isn't exactly an open and shut case. The Joint Terror Task Force is still on the case, despite the fact that the FBI is trying to make it appear as though this isn't a terrorism related case, such that ATF would become the lead agency.

Texas Rainmaker wonders how come the father couldn't recall the words if the note contained a single line of text. I wouldn't press that point too far since grief can cause folks to not recall details or the father could be having difficulty coming to grips with having lost his son.

However, early reports did suggest that the FBI did not locate a suicide note. If the computer was on, how come no one bothered to check what is now being claimed to be an open document with the single line of text. What is the timeline between the time when Hinrichs left the apartment and law enforcement entering the apartment to begin the crime scene analysis? Where was the roommate during that time period? Did anyone else have access to the computer during this time?

One would think that the computer would be one of the first items examined once the scene was declared safe to enter (after a presumed search of the premises for other explosives).

There are still too many questions, and each revelation actually raises more questions instead of solving them.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin has a lengthy posting about how she was contacted for the WSJ article, which went on to slam bloggers who were seeking more information about the Hinrichs bombing by considering them to be conspiracy mongerers who are peddling nonsense. As she notes, the WSJ coverage is a story of:

How the MSM ignores facts, smears blogs, and publishes snit fits disguised as responsible news.

UPDATE:
Mark Tapscott engages in a pile on against the WSJ piece based on their shoddy interpretion of the facts:

What amazes me about the WSJ story is its uncritical acceptance of the official explanation, even in the face of obvious factual problems. I didn't know it when Hagan interviewed me, but we have since learned from the Friday CNN segment that the FBI hasn't even followed its own policy on when an explosion would be considered a terrorist act and when an official explanation would be offered to the public.

And, we've now learned that the FBI claims to have obtained a suicide note from a computer found in Hinrichs' apartment, even though earlier reports had claimed that no letter was recovered.

Technorati: terrorism, suicide bomber, hinrichs, bomb.