Investigators want to talk to supremacists about Robida

Investigators tracking hour-by-hour movements of a teenager after a hatchet-and-gun attack in a Massachusetts gay bar are looking into whether he was heading to Arkansas to meet up with white supremacists, a source close to the investigation said Wednesday.

Jacob Robida, 18, shot and killed himself after a police chase ended Saturday in Norfork, Ark. Moments earlier, Robida shot and killed Gassville police officer Jim Sell, 63, after a traffic stop. As police closed in at Norfork, Robida also shot and killed a female acquaintance who had been riding with him, Jennifer Rena Bailey, 33, of Charleston, W.Va.

Using information from credit card receipts, investigators are developing a time line of Robida's movements after the February 2 attack at the Puzzles Lounge in New Bedford, Mass., said an Arkansas police official speaking on condition of anonymity. "Our people want to know, for intelligence purposes only, if there was something leading him to one of at least two organizations" in northern Arkansas, said the source, who was unable to comment publicly because police supervisors have ordered silence.

Robida did not take a meandering course while traveling from Massachusetts to Arkansas, the source said. "He was driving like he knew where he was going," the source said.

Investigators planned to talk to members of the organizations and may have done so already, the source said. White supremacists and similar groups can be found in certain pockets of rural Arkansas.

Meanwhile, a West Virginia television station reported Wednesday that Bailey's father had reported two guns stolen from his home at the same time his daughter was reported missing and Robida was traveling toward Arkansas. West Virginia state police said Robida may have stolen the guns, WOWK-TV in Huntington reported.

"Two firearms were reported stolen as a part of that burglary at this time; we believe they may possibly have been taken by Robida to Arkansas," said Sgt. T.C. Bledsoe of the West Virginia state police. Weapons taken were a .20-gauge shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle. "We believe those to be his firearms," Bledsoe said. Investigators would need to check the guns' serial numbers to verify that the guns belonged to Bailey's father.

The Arkansas source said Robida had a handgun and two long guns in his possession when the car was stopped after a 20-mile chase Saturday in Baxter County. Police had searched for Robida since early February 2, when, they say, he used a hatchet and handgun to wound three men at Puzzles. Investigators plan to review surveillance tapes from places where Robida and Bailey stopped between West Virginia and Arkansas for clues as to whether Bailey was abducted or went willingly. (AP)