FBI, POLICE CONTINUE BANK ROBBERY PROBE

Cape Girardeau police and Federal Bureau of Investigations agents continue to follow leads Monday in a bank robbery that occurred over the weekend.

Investigators looked for suspects in the Saturday morning robbery of the Bank of America at 800 N. Kingshighway, Cpl. Kevin Orr said.

Only one other bank robbery over the past five years in Cape Girardeau has not resulted in a conviction.

Investigation into the robbery of the same bank in 1998 has been closed, Orr said. No more information was available to the Federal Bureau of Investigation or police that would lead to a conviction in court.

Neither police nor the FBI think the 1998 robbery and Saturday's incident are connected.

The robbery of the Cape Regional Credit Union in 1997 was solved eight months ago when FBI agents arrested Lynn Ray Miller of Imperial, Mo. Investigators have attributed 32 robberies that occurred in the vicinity of Interstate 55 to him, authorities said.

The FBI maintains the lead investigative role in Saturday's robbery, as it does with all banks that are insured through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said Gary Fuhr, an FBI spokesman in St. Louis.

Only a handful of banks and credit unions do not have FDIC insurance, Fuhr said. If they were robbed, local police would handle investigations independently.

Overall, the FBI reports bank robberies in Missouri declined from 113 in 1998 to 65 last year.

Many factors influence such a variation in the number of bank robberies over two years, Fuhr said. When a person who has committed several robberies is arrested, it makes a difference.

"Generally, a bank robber will do more robberies if he is successful," Fuhr said.

Law enforcement officials have some advantages in solving bank robberies over other crimes because security cameras and other measures banks take to protect themselves makes it harder to get away with the crime, Fuhr said.

"This allows the FBI to bring in its resources, which frequently allow us to solve the robbery," he said.

The rate of solved bank robberies for the FBI in Missouri is about 85 percent, which is slightly higher than the national average, the spokesman said.