Sheriff Moose spent quite a bit of time in his recent news conference trying to explain away the details of having a missing person erroneously identified as a suspect in the Maryland shootings.

The on-line edition of NC's News and Observer had the details of this "missing person/possible suspect":

Sixth death linked to sniper
Police want to talk to N.C. ex-resident

Baker, shown in a 1993 photo, is wanted for questioning.
[img]www.ar15.com/members/albums/Sundrop%2FBaker%2Ejpg[/img]

From Staff and Wire Reports

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Police linked the shooting of a 72-year-old man in Washington to the sniper killings of five Maryland residents and said that the same high-powered rifle was used to kill at least four of the victims.

Authorities were searching for two men, including one with North Carolina ties, for questioning, and were investigating whether a seventh shooting outside a Virginia store was part of the same crime spree.

Late Friday, federal authorities in Charlotte issued a bulletin for a 33-year-old former Raleigh man in connection with the shootings. Robert Gene Baker III was believed to be heading south from Washington and may have associates in Virginia and North Carolina, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said.

Baker previously lived in an apartment at 9135 Stonehenge Drive in North Raleigh. It was not known when Baker last lived in Raleigh.

Baker's family members reported him missing Monday, according to the ATF report.

The bulletin described Baker as a drug user affiliated with various militia and white supremacist groups. He is 5-feet-9 and 165 pounds, with brown eyes, brown hair and tattoos on both arms and his back.

Police are looking for a white 2000 GMC van with dark lettering. The vehicle has a Maryland registration.

The ATF says it believes Baker is armed with a handgun and high-powered rifle and should be considered extremely dangerous.

Baker was arrested in 1993 in Raleigh on a fugitive warrant and also was charged with not wearing a seat belt and driving without a license, according to Wake County court records.

In Washington, police reported that the same weapon was used in Friday's slaying as in three of the five shootings in Maryland, said Special Agent Michael Bouchard of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Forensic testing was still under way in the two other Maryland shootings.

"We are on track to get him," said Charles Moose, the Montgomery County police chief, and a 1975 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. But few witnesses saw the killings, and no shell casings were found at the crime scenes.

[url]http://www.news-observer.com/front/story/1787256p-1794601c.html[/url]

Jim