NORTH KINGSTOWN -- Day and night, news cameras focus on the beige Colonial-style house on Coriander Lane where Katherine Osborn Russell has taken refuge with her family.
Law enforcement agents in unmarked cars are often stationed outside Russell's parents' home, whether for protection or surveillance -- or both -- is unclear. A throng of reporters and photographers trails her whenever she emerges, in sunglasses and a headscarf, to visit her lawyers in Providence.
In just three weeks, Russell, 24, has gone from a young mother working long hours as a home health aide to a central figure in an international terror investigation.
Russell, as the world now knows, is the widow of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the two ethnic Chechen brothers who authorities believe planted the bombs that killed three people, sent body parts flying and drove shrapnel into scores of bystanders at the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15.
The FBI, which is leading the investigation, has not named Russell as a suspect. But Russell has become a focal point.