Journal photo/ Kathy Borchers
Katherine O. Russell, formerly of North Kingstown, leaves her lawyer's office on Monday afternoon. Attorney Amato DeLuca is at right.
The New York Times is reporting that FBI agents are trying to determine whether female DNA found on a piece of a pressure cooker used in the marathon bombings was from Katherine O. Russell, the Rhode Island woman married to bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
On Monday, FBI agents visited the home of Russell's parents, where she has been staying, and took a sample of Russell's DNA, the Times reports.
Investigators want to know whether Russell, 24, could have knowingly or unknowingly destroyed evidence, helped the suspected bombers evade capture or played a role in planning the attacks, the New York Times reports, based on information from what it describes as two senior law enforcement officials.
The Times also reports that a fingerprint had been found on a bomb fragment and that investigators had tried to collect DNA and fingerprint samples from several people whom the authorities are scrutinizing in addition to Ms. Russell.
Russell's lawyer, Amato A. DeLuca, has said Russell was shocked when she learned that her husband and brother-in-law Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were suspected of the April 15 attack that killed three and wounded more than 200. He says she is helping authorities with their investigation.