FBI searches Robert Dear properties in WNC

SWANNANOA - Federal agents spent hours Tuesday searching accused Planned Parenthood gunman Robert Lewis Dear's mountain residences.

Local FBI agents were assisting FBI Denver in its search of 215 Long Branch Road in Swannanoa and 105 Anderson Acres in Black Mountain, spokeswoman Shelley Lynch said. She declined to release additional information about the nature of the search.

Robert Adams, who lives just below Dear's Swannanoa residence, described a "wild scene" in which a convoy of agencies descended on the filthy and abandoned trailer property about 8 a.m. Tuesday.

Adams said he saw two State Bureau of Investigation trucks marked with "bomb squad" on the side, two unmarked trucks, and at least six to eight SUVs. He estimated at least 15 vehicles were on the scene.

"They come in real slow, real methodical," he said.

He said agents used a battering ram to break down the trailer's door.

"They went through everything they could think of," Adams said, including an old camper in front of the trailer, other outbuildings and the trash-strewn woods. "I don't know if they found anything."

An antique blue Volkswagen that was parked in front of the trailer in late November was gone Tuesday. Adams said it vanished about two weeks ago, but he doesn't know how.

An FBI agent was on the scene on Nov. 28 speaking with neighbors, but Adams said he hasn't seen much happening on the property since that weekend's glut of media activity. Last week, he said he saw and spoke with two people from the Colorado public defender's office on the property.

Dear, 57, spent time at the Swannanoa property, which he purchased in 2006, but hadn't been seen in more than a year, neighbors said. He purchased the pale yellow Black Mountain shack atop a mountain off N.C. 9 in 2008.

Dear is accused of gunning down three people during an hourslong standoff at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs on Nov. 27.

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