The investigation into the mysterious explosion of a motorhome on Christmas Day continues in Nashville, Tennessee, where authorities conducted a search on Saturday, December 26, at a person suspected of being linked to the affair.
Images broadcast on the Fox channel showed a search in progress on Saturday.
Federal agents searched an empty two-story red-brick suburban house on Bakertown Road in Antioch, about 11 miles southeast of Nashville, according to Reuters.
Particular attention has been paid to the basement.
The mysterious owner of a house in Bakertown
"
For now, we are not ready to identify a single individual,
" said at a press conference on Saturday Doug Korneski, the special agent of the FBI in charge of the investigation.
Still, CBS News says the owner would be in the crosshairs of authorities, which Korneski declined to comment.
Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, reportedly recently lived at the Bakertown address, and according to a document posted on Nov. 25, he gave his property for free to a woman from Los Angeles.
According to Reuters, the document was signed by Warner but not by the woman in question.
"
Once we have examined the scene, we will look at the evidence and whatever we have collected from this residence and see how it fits into this investigation,
" FBI spokesman Darrell Debusk told Reuters, who was present during the search on Saturday.
"
I am relatively confident that we will be able to identify an individual and determine what happened, we just need time,
" said Douglas Korneski for his part.
Local police search the Bakertown house.
Terry Wyatt / Getty Images via AFP
Regarding the vehicle, neighbors at the Bakertown house told local television station WKRN that a motorhome of the same make and model as the one that blew up on Christmas Day had been parked for years in front of the house in question, but was now gone.
Police posted a photo of the cream-colored motorhome on Twitter on Friday, December 25 and called for witnesses.
Investigators, who have gathered more than 500 pieces of information from the public, "
continue to follow every lead,
" said federal prosecutor Don Cochran.
No deaths have been confirmed, but investigators will analyze tissue found at the blast site that could be human remains, Nashville Police Chief John Drake said.
But, for now, the police do not know if anyone was inside the motorhome when the explosion occurred.
The three people hospitalized with non-lethal injuries were all able to return home.
A "deliberate act"
"
It's a huge crime scene
", affirmed Douglas Korneski to justify the precaution of the beginnings of the investigation, "
like a giant puzzle created by a bomb which would have scattered elements of evidence on many blocks of houses
".
The blast, which took place at 6:30 a.m. local time on Friday, devastated part of a shopping thoroughfare in the historic center of the country music capital.
The explosion is "
a deliberate act
," said Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron, while stressing that he did not know if the AT&T building was specifically targeted.
The camper van was parked in front of an AT&T telephone company building, which caused damage to facilities disrupting telecommunications in Tennessee as well as in parts of Alabama and Kentucky.
The local airport also had to temporarily suspend its flights.
AT&T said on Saturday that two mobile phone antennas have been installed in downtown Nashville and numerous others in the area to restore communications.
The blast, which took place on Christmas Day at 6:30 a.m. local time, devastated a shopping thoroughfare in historic downtown Nashville.
Handout / Nashville Fire Department / AFP
State Governor Bill Lee has called on outgoing President Donald Trump to declare a state of emergency in Tennessee, given the extent of the damage.
"
This morning, I toured the area of the explosion, the damage is shocking and it is a miracle that no resident was killed,
" he wrote on social networks.
According to him, at least 41 businesses were damaged.
A chilling countdown
According to a timeline described by the governor, police were called to the scene on Friday morning, Christmas Day, for shots fired at 5:30 a.m.
Officers spotted the suspicious motorhome at 6 a.m.
Fifteen minutes later, officers "
heard the recording of a countdown
" from inside the vehicle warning by loudspeaker that a bomb was going to explode at 6:30 am and calling for the neighborhood to be evacuated.
The message read "
A bomb will go off in 15 minutes, then music, a bomb will go off in 14 minutes,
" Nashville Police Chief John Drake said.
More than thirty hours after the events, described by some as domestic terrorism, President Trump had still not officially reacted on Saturday, December 26.