• FBI reviewing before-and-after photos of bag at Boston Marathon blast scene

    WHDH-TV

    Two photos obtained by NBC station WHDH of Boston show a bag on the curb before one of Monday's explosions. The bag wasn't there after the blast. These are among the thousands of photos the FBI is investigating.

    By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC News

    The FBI is examining thousands of photos from before and after Monday's deadly bombings at the Boston Marathon to determine whether nylon bags might have been placed in trash bags to appear less conspicuous.


    Investigators believe the explosives used Monday were pressure cookers placed in nylon bags. The blasts killed three people and injured at least 176 others.

    Among the photos under review are the two above, which were given to NBC station WHDH of Boston by a witness.

    Several officials have told NBC News that the WHDH pictures show the point where the blast occurred.

    The first picture shows a bag next to a mailbox along a barricade on the marathon route. The second — which the station said it had blurred because of its graphic nature — appears to show no sign of the bag. It is not known what the bag contained.

    The person who took the pictures told WHDH that as long as an hour may have passed between the times the two photos were taken. 

    Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said investigators were looking at thousands of photos and wanted as many as the public could send in to boston@ic.fbi.gov.

    Jim Cavanaugh, a former special agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the experts know what to look for.

    "They're able to recognize the minute pieces of an article that a civilian wouldn't even know ... but to a bomb investigator, like ATF or FBI, will say, 'That's from a clock; that's from a battery,'" Cavanaugh told NBC News 

    NBC's Pete Williams discusses two images taken before and after the Boston bombing that are generating a lot of interest. The first shows a bag next to a mailbox along a barricade on the marathon route. The second appears to show no sign of the bag.

    Related:

    As Boston bombing photos and videos pour in, where do investigators begin?

    Full coverage of the Boston Marathon explosions

    This story was originally published on Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:48 PM EDT

  • 'It gave me a bear hug': Bobcat attacks Massachusetts family

    A man in Massachusetts shows off fang and claw marks a bobcat left on his face and back during an attack in the garage of his family's home. WHDH's Alex Field reports.

    By Daniel Arkin, NBC News

    Three people, including a teenager, went face-to-face with an unlikely visitor to a Brookfield, Mass., home on Sunday: a wild bobcat.


    Roger Mundell, 53, discovered the animal in his garage, police said. Before he had a chance to get his bearings, the bobcat lunged at him.

    "It only took a split second for him to be on me," Mundell told WHDH, an NBC station in Boston. "I didn't have time to process it."

    Mundell sustained a large gash on his forehead and puncture wounds on his arms during the attack.

    "It hit me with it's face right here," Mundell told WHDH, pointing to the wound on his forehead. "Then it gave me a bear hug."

    Mundell wrenched away from the animal and ran inside his house, slamming the door to the garage behind him. After Mundell told his wife -- whose name was not given -- what happened, she bolted out the front door to alert her 15-year-old nephew, according to Brookfield police chief Michael Blancherd.

    But as soon as Mundell's wife went outside, the bobcat emerged from the garage's side door and lunged at her nephew. Mundell, who had also gone outside to warn his nephew, charged forward to rescue the teenager.

    "I had to get it off my nephew," Mundell said. "I was in a t-shirt by then and that's when it ripped up my arms and stuff like that."

    Mundell's next-door neighbor, Jim Mortenson, told WHDH he witnessed the attacks from his home's driveway, but the wheelchair-bound man couldn't do much to help.

    Christine Peterson / The Telegram & Gazette via AP

    Roger Mundell Jr., bears cuts on his face at his home in Brookfield, Mass. after being attacked by a bobcat in his garage Sunday.

    "[The bobcat] just jumped on him, you know -- claws on him, was just trying to get him," Mortenson told WHDH.

    Amid the frenzy, Mundell and his wife managed to pin the animal to the ground with a walking crutch. While Mundell kneeled on the bobcat, his wife darted inside to retrieve a handgun, which Mundell used to shoot and kill the animal, Blancherd said.

    Mundell and his nephew were transported to a hospital to be treated for their injuries. The bobcat's carcass was taken to a veterinary hospital, where it will be tested for rabies, officer Sean Marino said.

    Although bobcat sightings are not unusual in the isolated area where Mundell lives, attacks are rare.

    "It doesn't happen that often," Marino said.

    More content from NBCNews.com:

    Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook