Jump to content


Photo

FBI offers $310K reward 25 years after Sunset Limited derails


  • Please log in to reply
5 replies to this topic

#1 CNJRoss

CNJRoss

    Administrator

  • Admin
  • PipPip
  • 43390 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Fairfax, VA

Posted 08 April 2015 - 07:15 PM

The Arizona Republic, Phoenix, AZ, 4/7:
 

FBI offers $300K reward 20 years after Arizona train derails

 

The FBI will announce a reward Friday for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the derailment of an Amtrak passenger train in 1995, according to a press release.

 

"The Sunset Limited" train derailed Oct. 9, 1995 in the early morning hours in a remote desert about 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, according to the release.

 

SNIP

 

The crash was the result of apparently sabotaged tracks, 19 feet of rail were ripped loose and 29 spikes were pulled out and plates that connect the rails to the railroad ties were removed, a source close to the investigation initially told reporters.

 

Read more here.



#2 KevinKorell

KevinKorell

    Board Leader

  • Sr. Admin
  • PipPip
  • 82315 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Lakewood, NJ
  • Interests:Making America TRAIN again!

Posted 08 April 2015 - 07:51 PM

Why 20 years from the incident is the FBI first offering a reward?  Seems to me if the case hasn't been solved thus far, it may never be.  Is the so-called Sons of Gestapo even still an entity?

 

It is also eerily strange that this incident as well as the Bayou Canot wreck near Mobile both involved the Sunset Limited, and both sections are no longer in service ---- the Phoenix West line and the New Orleans-Florida segments.  While the Arizona wreck was intentional, the one in Alabama was more than likely an accident with a barge taking the wrong path in the fog, but the results were the same as far as the trains derailing although only 1 person died in Arizona while the Alabama incident was Amtrak's deadliest.



Kevin Korell


OTOL Board Leader


Lakewood, NJ


#3 KevinKorell

KevinKorell

    Board Leader

  • Sr. Admin
  • PipPip
  • 82315 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Lakewood, NJ
  • Interests:Making America TRAIN again!

Posted 14 April 2015 - 01:34 AM

National Public Radio, 4/12/15:


20 Years Later, Sabotage Of Amtrak's Sunset Limited Still A Mystery

 

The mystery goes back 20 years.

 

It was an ordinary, cross-country train trip back in 1995: Amtrak's Sunset Limited passenger train, bound for Los Angeles from Miami.

 

This story



Kevin Korell


OTOL Board Leader


Lakewood, NJ


#4 CNJRoss

CNJRoss

    Administrator

  • Admin
  • PipPip
  • 43390 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Fairfax, VA

Posted 12 October 2015 - 09:33 PM

The Republic, Phoenix, AZ 10/10:

 

Unsolved Arizona mystery: Who derailed the Sunset Limited?

 

In 1995, someone cut the tracks in the deep desert. An Amtrak train ran off the rails, leaving one man dead. Today, the question remains, who did it? And why?

 

 

It remains one of Arizona’s most enduring unsolved mysteries.

 

In the earliest hours of Monday, Oct. 9, 1995, Amtrak’s Sunset Limited train sped westward through the Arizona desert, bound for California.

 

Some 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, around 1:30 a.m., it lurched violently. Eight passenger cars derailed, and four fell off a bridge and into a dry river bed, according to reports at the time.

 

The crash killed one person, an Amtrak employee, and injured 78 others. Investigators would later find unmistakable signs of sabotage, along with cryptic notes that railed at the government. They vowed to find whoever was responsible.

 

Two decades later, the case is still open.

 

SNIP

 

The fact that two decades have passed has worked against them, Lum added, but he said the FBI will continue to pursue the case no matter how much time has gone by.

 

“We’re not going to quit. We’re never going to go away. We’re going to keep investigating this until it’s solved,” he said. “There was an individual killed … We’ll investigate it until we get justice for Mitchell.”

 

How to help

If you have information about the 1995 derailment of the Sunset Limited, e-mail aztrainderailment@ic.fbi.gov or call 800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324).

 

Continue here.



#5 KevinKorell

KevinKorell

    Board Leader

  • Sr. Admin
  • PipPip
  • 82315 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Lakewood, NJ
  • Interests:Making America TRAIN again!

Posted 09 October 2016 - 12:54 PM

KNXV-TV, ABC-15 in Phoenix, AZ, 10/9/16:

Old Time Crime: Unsolved mystery, Amtrak passenger train sabotaged outside Hyder Arizona in 1995


In the early morning hours of October 9, 1995, dozens of passengers were injured when the Amtrak Train Sunset Limited derailed West of Phoenix due to saboteur(s) pulling railroad spikes and disabling warning systems.


Update


Kevin Korell


OTOL Board Leader


Lakewood, NJ


#6 KevinKorell

KevinKorell

    Board Leader

  • Sr. Admin
  • PipPip
  • 82315 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Lakewood, NJ
  • Interests:Making America TRAIN again!

Posted 10 October 2020 - 10:58 AM

Here we are having passed the 25th anniversary, and not much has changed.  The FBI has added another $10,000 to the reward making it $310,000.  Amtrak still bypasses this segment (including the city of Phoenix) on the transcontinental freight line via Maricopa.  From FBI website:

 


 

    Train Derailment Mystery 

 

Michael Lum was a student at Arizona State University when he learned that a train had mysteriously derailed in rural Arizona on October 9, 1995.

 

“I woke up and saw it on the news, and I went to class and we talked about it,” Lum recalled.

 

Read



Kevin Korell


OTOL Board Leader


Lakewood, NJ





0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users