PRIVATE detective hired to help keep McVeigh's ashes' location secret

DENVER (AP) _ Lawyers for executed Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh hired a private investigator to help the federal Bureau of Prisons protect McVeigh's ashes, The Denver Post reported Sunday.

Monday, June 18th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DENVER (AP) _ Lawyers for executed Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh hired a private investigator to help the federal Bureau of Prisons protect McVeigh's ashes, The Denver Post reported Sunday.

It quoted lawyer Christopher Tritico as saying McVeigh instructed them to keep the final resting place of his ashes a secret. They said McVeigh did not want the site to be destroyed, become a shrine or anyone to profit from them.

McVeigh wrote a letter to The Buffalo (N.Y.) News saying he wanted the location of his ashes kept secret.

The private investigator, Ellis Armistead, said in the weeks before McVeigh's execution that prison officials and funeral home operators got calls from people who wanted to buy all or a portion of his remains.

``There was a huge concern something inappropriate would take place, and that's why I was involved. Normally, it would not be an issue, but in this case people were offering large amounts of money for pieces of his remains. They were calling funeral homes in Terre Haute and offering money. We had to take special precautions,'' said Armistead, a former Lakewood police officer.

The Post said an employee of the Mattox Wood Funeral Home in Terra Haute, Ind., which handled some of the paperwork in the cremation, confirmed getting calls offering money.