Five Years After Killing of Prosecutor, A Stumped FBI Asks the Public for Help

That emphasis comes on the heels of what appears to have been a manpower dispute in the inquiry. In May, an FBI supervisor in Seattle reduced by two the number of agents assigned to the case. In June, after reports of squabbling inside the bureau, the case was shifted to the FBI's Portland office and beefed up with more investigators.

An important thread -- one that investigators declined to talk about last week -- is the nearly five-year-old inquiry into the activities of a Seattle-based commercial airline pilot who has been described in local newspapers as the prime suspect.

In an apparently preemptive media offensive that was published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on the morning of the FBI news conference, the pilot -- whose name has not been made public because he has not been charged -- complained through his attorney about the aggressive behavior of law enforcement authorities.

"This is Richard Jewell all over again," Larry Setchell, the lawyer, told the newspaper, alluding to the man who was falsely accused of the bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Setchell declined to comment, except to confirm the accuracy of the details concerning his client that were published in the Seattle newspaper.

The most curious of those details is the presence of the pilot in Las Vegas in January when the murder-for-hire letter was mailed.

Setchell said that the pilot was there by coincidence, on a layover, and that he plans to turn over handwriting samples to the FBI in the coming week to show that he did not write the letter.

Since the killing, the pilot's home reportedly has been searched three times, and federal agents have seized his cars and many of his belongings. US Airways reportedly grounded the pilot for several weeks after it was notified that he was a subject of interest in the inquiry.

Early in 2001, before the killing, the pilot was one of several people Wales investigated in connection with illegally modifying a surplus military helicopter for civilian use. The charges were dropped, but only after the pilot spent more than $100,000 in legal fees, Setchell told the Post-Intelligencer.

Setchell said that the pilot felt "profound frustration" over the investigation but that he did not blame Wales.

Asked at the news conference about the status of the investigation against the pilot, the FBI's Jordan said only: "When the investigation reaches the point where we have probable cause to arrest someone, we speak with an indictment."