Ricin Case - Man In Hospital Identified - Utah Home To Be Searched

March 1, 2008

If this is your first time visiting National Terror Alert you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. The National terror Alert feed features breaking news, alerts and bulletins on demand and it's free of charge..
You will only see this message on your first visit to the site. Thanks for visiting!

In the Las Vegas Nevada ricin investigation, details are emerging about the man hospitalized after possibly being exposed to the deadly toxin.

Roger Von Bergendorff lived at his cousin’s home for more than a year before moving to Las Vegas about a year ago, said Tammy Ewell, who lives across the street from Thomas Tholen in Riverton, Utah, and described him and his wife, Ellen, as close friends.

“He was very much a loner. I would say more or less socially regressive. He just barely got by in life. He’d just barely make it,” Ewell said. “Tom was the last resort.”

In a brief phone interview earlier Saturday, Thomas Tholen told The Associated Press that Von Bergerdorff was “holding his own” in the hospital.

Tholen, 53, wouldn’t say much more about Von Bergendorff or the discovery Thursday of several vials of ricin — which is deadly in minuscule amounts — at the man’s extended-stay motel room on the Las Vegas Strip.

Officials have secured Tholen’s home, where Von Bergendorff reportedly stayed, but they have not searched it because they are awaiting court approval for a warrant, FBI spokesman Juan Becerra said later Saturday.