Car of Fugitive in Abortion Provider’s Slaying Is Found

AMHERST, N.Y. — A car belonging to the anti-abortion activist wanted for questioning in the sniper slaying of a doctor has been found in a long-term parking lot at a New Jersey airport, authorities said Wednesday.

Police wouldn’t say whether they believe that the fugitive, James Kopp, might have left the country.

Kopp’s 1987 Chevrolet Cavalier was discovered Friday at Newark International Airport, the FBI and police in this Buffalo suburb said Wednesday.

Authorities have said the car was spotted in Amherst in the weeks before obstetrician-gynecologist Barnett Slepian, 52, was killed in his kitchen Oct. 23 by a rifle shot from outside.

Kopp, 44, has been sought for questioning in the killing since being named as a material witness Nov. 4. Officials have said the native of St. Albans, Vt., is not a suspect.

Investigators believe that the killing is linked to four earlier nonfatal shootings targeting doctors who provided abortion services in Canada and upstate New York.

The car had been in the long-term lot about two weeks, said Greg Trevor, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

It had a New Jersey license plate that didn’t belong on it. FBI agent Monica Patton in Newark said she couldn’t say whether the plate had been stolen.

Police would not say what was found inside the car.

Kopp is believed to have been working on a construction job in the metropolitan New York area two days after the shooting, FBI agent Bernard Tolbert said at a news conference.