Fugitive Eludes Bomb Investigators Search Of Rural Cabin Turns Up Guns, Gunpowder, Bomb-Making Manual

An armed convicted drug dealer is a fugitive after surprising federal agents searching for bomb components Monday in his rural Lincoln County home.

The agents, investigating the unsolved Spokane City Hall bombing, found a bombmaking instruction book, gunpowder and illegal firearms in the cabin of Paul James Cavanaugh.

“At this time, there is nothing to indicate he’s connected with the unsolved bombings in Spokane,” said Robert Harper, agent in charge of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office in Spokane.

Documents used to obtain the federal search warrant are sealed to protect informers’ identities and details of the investigation.

Harper confirmed the information focusing on Cavanaugh grew out of the investigation of the pipebomb explosion April 29 outside City Hall.

During the search, Cavanaugh, 36, showed up unexpectedly, displayed a semi-automatic assault rifle and screamed at the agents and a Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy.

As two federal agents went for their sidearms, Cavanaugh ran into the rugged scabland, Harper said.

“This is another Ruby Ridge-looking place,” said one agent.

The confrontation occurred on a narrow, muddy road leading to Cavanaugh’s crudely built home on Upper Hawk Creek, about 15 miles northwest of Davenport, Harper said.

Three agents wearing ATF vests spent about an hour searching the cabin before he showed up. He was given a ride home by an unidentified friend on a secondary logging road that agents didn’t know about, Harper said.

Three agents keeping watch on the fringes of the property weren’t immediately aware that Cavanaugh was confronting the other officers, accusing them of trespassing.

A single gunshot was heard about five minutes after the confrontation.

The officers left the area rather than conduct an extensive manhunt for the fugitive, who Harper said has expressed “anti-government sentiments in the past.”

“Safety-wise, we do not feel it’s wise to go back out there,” said Harper, who asked the public to help locate Cavanaugh.

ATF agents and deputies searched within a quarter-mile of the cabin and property, which contains 30 abandoned cars and an old house trailer. They also flew over the area Monday and again Tuesday, but found no trace of Cavanaugh, Harper said.

Asked about the lone gunshot agents heard, Harper did not rule out the possibility that Cavanaugh may have committed suicide.

A federal arrest warrant was issued Tuesday, charging Cavanaugh with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition. Harper said an illegal sawed-off shotgun, four illegal homemade silencers, ammunition, black and smokeless powder and a bomb-making book were found in the cabin.

He is believed armed with an Uzi carbine and a .44-caliber Magnum revolver.

Cavanaugh was convicted of attempting to make methamphetamine and being a felon in possession of firearms after ATF agents and police raided a home on Spokane’s North Wall in July 1989.

“He has a significant felony criminal history,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Skibbie.

Investigators are checking the possibility that Cavanaugh may be a “meth cook” with ties to outlaw motorcycle gangs.

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