Los Angeles Times
KARACHI, Pakistan — In the latest twist to the already enigmatic case of kidnapped American journalist Daniel Pearl, top police investigators rushed to a hospital in this port city early today only to find that a body brought there with a bullet wound in the head was not that of the U.S. reporter.
Summoned to the hospital, investigators and close colleagues of Pearl from the Wall Street Journal quickly ruled out the possibility that the body was Pearl’s, based on its smaller stature, darker complexion and different teeth, according to a senior superintendent of police in Karachi.
"It wasn’t even a close match," U.S. Consulate spokesman Lonnie Kelley said.
Because of the report, first ABC News and then Fox News and MSNBC reported for about an hour Sunday that Pearl was dead, according to The Washington Post.
It was the second time in three days that those closest to the case feared that Pearl, who disappeared here Jan. 23, might be dead. On Friday, Western news organizations received an e-mail — at the time believed to be from the kidnappers — declaring that Pearl had been killed and his body dumped in one of the city’s graveyards.
On Sunday, authorities expanded their dragnet to the capital, Islamabad, and its environs, where they made several raids and detained suspects for questioning. A total of 10 people were believed to be in police custody Sunday.
Pakistani and U.S. news media have received at least six e-mails purportedly from the kidnappers. However, police consider only two of them genuine. Those two included photos of the journalist.
Police said Sunday that a teen-age boy in the eastern border city of Lahore admitted sending two of the bogus e-mails.
Police said they also believed a $2 million ransom demand, telephoned to U.S. diplomats Friday, was a hoax.
Late Sunday, police surrounded an apartment complex in Karachi from which they suspected the two genuine messages may have been sent.
The operation was still under way early today.
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