What female DNA on the Boston bombs does, and doesn't, mean

Federal investigators have gathered a DNA sample from Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow, but they may be grasping at straws

On Monday, federal investigators disclosed that a bit of female DNA was found on a fragment of at least one of the pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 200 others at the Boston Marathon. Also on Monday, the FBI visited suspected bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow, Katherine Russell, to collect a DNA sample to see if it matches the material found on the bomb.

Russell, 24, has been staying at her parents' home in Rhode Island since her husband's death, and the focus on her "is part of the wider effort by the FBI to determine who else may have played a role aiding the bombers," say Michael S. Schmidt and Serge F. Kovaleski in The New York Times.

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The authorities are looking at a range of possibilities, two senior law enforcement officials said, including that she could have wittingly or unwittingly destroyed evidence, helped the bombers evade capture, or even played a role in planning the attacks.... While the authorities do not believe the bombers were tied to a larger terrorist network or had accomplices, they remain skeptical that others did not know of their plans or did not help them destroy evidence. [New York Times]

Oh boy, says Allahpundit at Hot Air, "I sure hope there's more to this than the Journal is letting on, because if the odds of a completely innocent explanation are as high as they imply, it's a major cloud of suspicion over Tamerlan Tsarnaev's wife for no reason at all." Even if Russell's DNA is found on the bomb fragments, why would that even be surprising? he asks.

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Not every component in the device had a nefarious explanation. There's a chance, I suppose, that one of the pressure cookers came from the family's own kitchen. Tamerlan, who was famously domineering according to people who knew him, also might have told his wife to go out and buy one of the components he needed without explaining what it was for. Unless her DNA's on the explosive itself, how would the feds ever prove that it didn't end up there innocently? [Hot Air]

"Given the level of sophistication of this device, the fact that the pressure cooker is a signature device that goes back to Pakistan, Afghanistan," House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said onFox News Sunday, it seems likely "that there was a trainer, and the question is where is that trainer or trainers."

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What female DNA on the Boston bombs does, and doesn't, mean