The Road To Capture

Killings, clues and miscues ...

It took police 18 years to nab the Unabomber. At just 22 days, the sniper probe was comparatively speedy; still, it snaked through numerous wrong turns and culs-de-sac:

OCT. 2 A shot is fired into a store window; no one is hurt. Within an hour, a man is killed in Montgomery County, Md.

OCT. 3 D.C. police stop the sniper's blue Chevy Caprice for a "minor infraction" and scan the tag number. It comes up clean. Two hours later, a witness reports seeing a dark-hued, perhaps burgundy or cranberry Caprice leaving the scene of the day's fifth and final murder. Police post a lookout for the car

OCT. 7 Sniper leaves tarot card, left, and message stating, "Mister Policeman, I am God." Police retrieve shell casing in matted grass near shooting

OCT. 8 A Baltimore police officer finds Muhammad asleep in his car outside a Subway sandwich shop and scans both his New Jersey plates and Washington State license though law-enforcement databases. Nothing out of the ordinary shows up. According to the Baltimore Sun, Muhammad tells the officer that he is on his way to New Jersey to visit his father, asks for directions to Interstate 95 and drives away

DETOURS Police spotted the blue Caprice on several occasions, though they focused instead on white trucks

OCT. 12 Police release a composite image of a white box truck, below, and say they are also looking for a white Astro van with a ladder rack

OCT. 13 Chief Moose says there is no "big push" for information on the Caprice

OCT. 14 Witnesses report seeing a dark-colored Chevy or Chrysler fleeing the Home Depot shooting, but police home in on a witness's description of a cream-colored van

...then one big week

The next six days were the most crucial to the chase, but they were also the most hectic and confused as the dragnet spread cross country from the D.C. area to Montgomery, Ala., and Washington State. Here's what we know so far:

OCT. 17 A man identifying himself as the sniper calls police. A federal law-enforcement official tells TIME that he also mentions Montgomery, Ala., and says, "I did something down there." According to the official, the task force then contacts Montgomery, Ala., police to ask about unsolved crimes

OCT. 18 The sniper calls the Rev. William Sullivan of St. Ann's Catholic Church in Ashland, Va., above, raving, "I am God." In garbled speech, the caller refers to the D.C.-area shootings as well as a crime in Alabama. Thinking he has a prankster on the line, Sullivan hangs up and does not report the call

OCT. 18 Police arrest Matthew Dowdy, right, the man who falsely claimed he saw a cream-colored Astro van fleeing the Home Depot murder

OCT. 19 Sniper leaves letter, above, demanding $10 million and saying he will call police the next day. The sniper also rebukes the task force for "incompitence"[sic] claiming his calls to five separate entities--including the FBI and an Ashland priest--were treated like a "joke." The postscript: "Your children are not safe anywhere at anytime"