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Special Agent Hudson was elated. After three days of bureaucratic debate she had permission to release the photo of one of the prime suspects. The description released earlier basically held up: White, medium complexion, perhaps tan from being outside; mid-30s; stocky and muscular.
But based on the driver’s license he was a bit smaller, 5’8” and 175 pounds, and he had brown eyes and brown hair, perhaps short-cropped. May be dressed in casual or blue-collar workman’s clothes and often wears a baseball cap. No facial hair, though often has beard stubble. No known tattoos, body piercings or scars, but may have a mole the size of a dime below suspect’s right front hairline.
Best of all there was the driver’s license photo of Harrison Willford, with the caution it was likely an alias. Although the head-on photo didn’t show the dime-size mole beneath his right hairline, Hudson included that possibility in the description. She again added the artist’s sketch of the suspect with a beard.
During the three days Hudson waited, hundreds of officers fanned out to interview public and private employers who may have hired the terrorists, particularly the one needing a face and name. The officers met dead end upon dead end until, finally, the HR director for a computer firm remembered a man with a faded v-shaped scar on his chin. “It was sexy,” she said. She found the application and job file for a Mitchell Applebaum. He was hired as the firm’s internal programmer and repair technician, a job not requiring a federal background investigation. A photo ID was needed to access the company’s offices in Rockville, Maryland.
“We were doing a lot of hiring so we had a photog set up for the day,” the HR director remembered. “Mr. Applebaum didn’t show, said he didn’t remember when I took the extra step to call him. His resume looked good. I told him if he wanted the job he’d have to go to the photographer’s studio. He didn’t argue. Apparently he needed the job. He quit about a year later. When I tried to keep him he said something about not having a choice but maybe he’d be in touch later. That was a couple years ago and I haven’t heard from him since.”
Neighbors from around Point of Rocks who had given the best descriptions identified Applebaum from the photo. They were certain. No driver’s license could be found. But now, instead of issuing the all-points bulletin for just one Harrison Willford, he was accompanied by one Mitchell Applebaum, described as:
White, light complexion; 5’11”, 165 lbs.; late 30s; lean but muscular; brown thinning hair combed straight back; light green eyes; thin face; well-dressed, whether wearing casual clothes or coat and tie, sometimes wears a broad-brimmed felt hat. No facial hair. No known tattoos or body piercings, but suspect believed to have a faint v-shaped scar on his chin.
Again, the artist’s rendition of the man known as Applebaum was attached, showing his hair combed over rather than straight back, and with a light growth of beard, neatly trimmed.
The world-wide bulletin finally gave the public names, real or not, and photos of both men leading the FBI’s list of most wanted, for terrorism and first degree murder in the deadly attack on the Russian Embassy. They are armed and extremely dangerous, the posters advised. Do not approach. Contact law enforcement.