Did Boston bombers have help? Investigators checking female DNA evidence

Investigators have found female DNA on a piece of one of the pressure cookers used as bombs in the Boston Marathon attacks, but its unclear whether the new evidence points to a third suspect, officials briefed on the probe told The Wall Street Journal.

The DNA does not conclusively indicate that the bombing suspects brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had an accomplice who helped to either build the bombs or dispose of the evidence. Officials said that the DNA could have come from a store clerk who handled the materials, or from a spectator at the bombing site.

But investigators are using the DNA evidence, as well as a fingerprint found on a bomb fragment, to probe several potential associates, including Katherine Russell, the widow of deceased suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, two senior law enforcement officials told The New York Times.

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FBI agents visited Ms. Russell at her parents home in North Kingstown, R.I., on Monday. They left the house carrying bags labeled DNA samples, which will be used to see if the DNA belongs to Russell or the couples 3-year-old daughter, officials told CNN. Russell has been staying with her parents since April 19, when Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after a shootout with police.

"The FBI is there as part of our ongoing investigation, but we aren't permitted to discuss specific aspects of the case," FBI spokesman Jason Pack told The Journal.

Russell has not been charged in the plot, and investigators say she is not currently a suspect. Her lawyer, Amato A. DeLuca, has said that his client was shocked to learn of her husbands alleged involvement in the attacks, and she has been cooperating with the investigation.

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We want to state what we stated before: Katie continues to assist in the investigation in any way that she can, he said in an e-mail to The New York Times on Monday.

Police found materials used to make the bomb in the apartment where Russell and her husband lived in Cambridge, Mass., Reuters reported. But Mr. DeLuca said Russell did not know about her husbands activities because she worked when Mr. Tsarnaev was at home watching their daughter.

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Did Boston bombers have help? Investigators checking female DNA evidence