Instead, the man in the sketch has been unequivocally identified by the government as Todd Bunting, who was questioned more than 18 months ago and cleared of any involvement in the blast that killed 168 people.
Federal authorities are now likely to remove the sketch from lists of wanted suspects.
Credible witnesses in Kansas and Oklahoma claimed to have seen the mystery man with accused bomber Timothy James McVeigh. Despite the alleged sightings, McVeigh and Terry Lynn Nichols remain the only two charged in the blast. John Doe No. 2 posed problems for the government as it prepared for McVeigh's March 31 trial. Potentially problematic was the specter of defense witnesses placing John Doe No. 2 in the conspiracy and confusing jurors. In a brief filed in federal court in Denver yesterday, the government stated that the eyewitness upon whose description the sketch was based now believes he unwittingly described Bunting.