Decoy hearse used to move McVeigh's body

Authorities at the prison where Timothy McVeigh was executed have used a decoy hearse as a security measure.

A spokeswoman for the Terre Haute penitentiary in Indiana said they wanted to avoid a potential ambush of the motorcade.

McVeigh was executed earlier this month for the bombing of the Alfred P Murrah building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

Spokeswoman Kathy Pierce said authorities sent out the decoy as the real hearse took McVeigh's body to a funeral home before his cremation.

"Security was the main thing. We just never know. It was used mainly to protect McVeigh's body," she said.

After the cremation, McVeigh's ashes were handed over to a member of his legal team.

Workers at a funeral home in Terre Haute who handled some of the paperwork said they'd received "numerous" calls from people offering money for McVeigh's ashes or information about where they might be.

McVeigh's lawyers even hired a private detective to work with the Federal Bureau Of Prisons to protect the body after the execution.

Private investigator Ellis Armistead said: "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."

The whereabouts of McVeigh's ashes remains a mystery.