Triple amputee vet takes on skydiving, alligator wrestling

(CBS News) HIRAM, Ga. -- When CBS News met Todd Love last year, he was learning how to kayak, and that's no small accomplishment, because Love is a triple amputee. As a U.S. Recon Marine in Afghanistan two years ago, he lost both legs and his left forearm to a landmine.

Love said then that kayaking didn't completely satisfy his need for adventure.

Watch: CBS News first met Todd Love when he was learning how to kayak, at left.

"I want to go skydiving soon," he said. "It shouldn't be a problem to do that."

He was right. Since then, he's done four tandem jumps and hopes to eventually dive solo.

And that wasn't the end of his wish list.

"I've always wanted to wrestle an alligator," he said.

Todd Love took on skydiving to satisfy his need for adventure.

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CBS News

Animal Planet got word of that and invited Love to appear on "Gator Boys."

"The whole time, I was kind of thinking, 'I hope this gator doesn't get tired of me being on top of him, 'cause I'm bite-sized,'" Love said.

Love also recently became a fully certified scuba diver.

"I feel like I can do anything I put my mind to," he said. "And for me, that's way more than having two legs. It's priceless."

He put his mind to surfing and was doing handstands within minutes.

Freeing disabled vets with kayaks
Quadruple amputee vet says new arms feel "amazing"
Iraq War veteran Keith Zeier survives avalanche

And he can't get enough of the demolition derby -- in a car he controls by hand. Love said that was the most intense of all his activities.

"I would say the adrenaline rush was probably the most significant," he said. "It's up there with combat."

Todd Love

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CBS News

His next adventure: going to college. It makes him more nervous, he said, than jumping out of a plane, but he's determined to succeed.

Love doesn't spend a lot of time feeling sorry for himself.

"I don't have a reason to feel sorry for myself," he said. "A lot of times, no conversation at all, people will come up to me and thank me for my service, and I see the tears in their eyes and there's not much that I can say. In my mind, I'm thinking I wish these people knew -- I wish they knew what I was thinking, how much I love my life."

Love said he's always on the lookout for a new adventure and predicted he'll still be doing "something crazy" when he's 90 years old.

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Sierra's Family Selling Photos to Cover Funeral, Kids

The family of Sarai Sierra, an amateur New York photographer slain while on a trip to Turkey, put her photos up for sale today and quickly sold enough photographs to pay forher funeral, the woman's brother said today.

The photos remain on sale and the profits will now be going to her two young sons, the family said.

Sierra, 33, was found bludgeoned to death near a highway in Istanbul on Saturday. Her iPhone and iPad, the tools she used to share her photos with her thousands of Instagram followers were reportedly missing.

The Staten Island mother of two traveled to Turkey alone on Jan. 7 after a friend had to cancel. It was Sierra's first overseas trip, and she kept in contact with her family the entire time, they said, sharing stories of her journey and posting photos online.

"Sarai's passion for photography and love for capturing the beauty we see in culture, architecture and scenery was her reason for traveling to Istanbul," her brother, David Jimenez, wrote on a website set up to sell his sister's photography.

Among the photos for sale are Istanbul sunsets, and shots of Sierra's beloved New York City.

Courtesy Sarai Sierra's family

New Clues in Death of Missing American Mother Watch Video

Sarai Sierra's Body Found: Missing New York Mom Found in Turkey Watch Video

Body Found in Search for Missing Mother in Turkey Watch Video

By this afternoon, Jimenez put out another message saying, "Hey Instacanvas, Thank you for all the support in purchasing Sarai's pictures. Quick update, all expenses for Sarai's funeral have been paid for! From here on out any picture of hers that you purchase will NOT be going towards her funeral. All funds will be going to her children. Thank you for your support. David"

Sierra had been scheduled to arrive home at Newark Liberty International Airport on Jan. 22. When her husband, Steven Sierra, called the airline, he was told his wife never boarded the flight from Istanbul.

Steven Sierra and Jimenez traveled to Istanbul to aid in the search.

An intense two week search for for Sarai Sierra ended when her battered body was found.

An autopsy was completed Sunday, but results aren't expected for three months. Turkish officials however said Sierra was killed by at least one fatal blow to her head.

A casket holding the Staten Island mother was taken to a Istanbul church Monday where it remains as Sierra's family makes arrangements to bring her home.

Turkish police hope DNA samples from 21 people being questioned in the case will be key to finding the perpetrators, state media reported. A motive is not yet clear.

"They're still investigating so they might think it might be a robbery, but they're not sure," said Betsy Jimenez, Sierra's mother, said Monday.

The family also faces the heartbreaking task of telling Sierra's two sons, ages 11 and 9, that their mother is dead.

The boys have been under the impression that their father has gone to Turkey to bring their mother home - alive.

"It's going to be the hardest thing he's ever going to have to do in his life," said Rep. Michael Grimm, (R-NY) who added that the Staten Island family isn't sure when Steven Sierra will be able to bring his wife's body home.

ABC News' Josh Haskell contributed to this report.

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Ice-age art hints at birth of modern mind

Sumit Paul-Choudhury, editor

Figurines from the Don river valley (Images: Kirstin Jennings)

The world’s oldest portrait, the world’s first fully carved sculpture, the world's oldest ceramic figure, the world’s earliest puppet - there’s no shortage of superlatives in the new exhibition of art from the ice age at the British Museum in London

But focus too closely on the exhibits’ record-breaking ages alone, and you might miss the broader point: these beautiful objects are the earliest evidence we have of humans who seem to have had minds like ours.

Consider, for example, the "lion man" found in 1939 in south-west Germany’s Stadel cave (pictured above). As the name suggests, this statue, standing 30 centimetres tall, harmoniously combines human and leonine features: the head is unmistakeably a lion’s, while the body and lower limbs are more human.

This is clearly the product of artistic creativity rather than a naturalistic drawing from life - suggesting that whoever carved it some 40,000 years ago had the capacity to express their imagination, as well as to replicate what they saw around them.

The temptation to speculate about what symbolic meaning the lion man might have had is, of course, irresistible. It was clearly valuable, taking around 400 hours and enormous skill to carve from a single piece of mammoth ivory.

The exhibition also includes a second, much smaller, feline figure found in another cave nearby, pointing to the idea that such imaginative objects might have cultural significance, perhaps as ritual objects within a shamanic belief system, rather than being isolated art objects.

Given what we know of modern traditions, that would make sense - but there is no hard evidence that anything resembling those traditions existed in Europe during the ice age.

Almost every object on show invites similarly thought-provoking consideration. Thumb-sized figurines from settlements along Russia's Don river (top) seem to present a woman's perception of her own pregnant body in an age before mirrors: no face, bowed head, the shelf of the bosom, the protrusion of the hips and buttock muscles and the swell of the belly. Were they carved by the women themselves, perhaps as protective talismans for themselves or their unborn children? And if so, what are we to make of those that were apparently deliberately destroyed subsequently?

Only a few of the animal models found at the Czech site of Dolní Věstonice are intact. The rest had shattered into thousands of clay fragments when they were heated while still wet. This must also have been deliberate: was the dramatic shattering part of a rite?

A tiny relief of a human figure with upraised arms invites interpretation as a celebrant or worshipper. Was he or she participating in a ceremony to promote social cohesion during tough times - perhaps to the accompaniment of music played on instruments such as the flute displayed nearby, which is precisely carved from a vulture's wing-bone?

Such interpretations deserve a healthy dose of caution, of course. The note accompanying an elegantly carved water bird (perhaps a cormorant) found near the smaller lion man drily reads: "This sculpture may be a spiritual symbol connecting the upper, middle and lower worlds of the cosmos reached by a bird that flies in the sky, moves on land and dives through water. Alternatively, it may be an image of a small meal and a bag of feathers."

In the total absence of documentary evidence, there is no way of telling which is correct: archaeological material might help clarify the utilitarian perspective, but it is far less helpful when it comes to discovering any symbolic value.

In any case, there is very little archaeological evidence on display at the British Museum. Curator Jill Cook says she was keen to avoid exhausting visitors with copious background material about the evolutionary and environmental contexts in which these objects were made.

Humans were capable of complex behaviour long before they reached Europe - as demonstrated by discoveries such as the 100,000-year old "artist's workshop" in South Africa's Blombos cave - but Cook thinks the explosion of art among Europeans 40,000 years ago may reflect changing social needs during the ice age.

When Homo sapiens first arrived in Europe some 45,000 years ago, "the living was initially probably reasonably easy", explains Cook. They would have found temperatures only about 5 °C lower than they are now, she says, and grassy prairies would have been well stocked with bison. As the human population grew, they would have had to find new ways of building, socialising and organising themselves.

“And as it turns desperately cold, around 40,000 years ago, suddenly we have all this art," she says.

That may have reflected the need to communicate and develop ideas - a need pressing enough for people to spend hundreds of hours creating objects that generally seem to have had little quotidian function.

"This is all about planning and preconceiving and organising and collaborating and compromising," suggests Cook, "and that is something art and music helps us do."

The dazzling array of objects on display, spanning tens of thousands of years, anticipate practically every modern artistic tradition. The first portrait, dating back 26,000 years, includes closely modelled details of its female subject's unusual physiognomy, perhaps the result of an injury or illness.

But nearby is an extraordinary figure of similar age whose facial features are utterly abstract, resembling a visor with a double slit in it.

Another (above) has a body whose angular patterns anticipate Cubism by some 23,000 years: Picasso kept two copies of it in his studio. Elsewhere, there are doll-like models of women with stylised faces, and female forms streamlined into little more than slender, strategically curved lines.

Representations of animals, too, come in all forms, from incredibly realistic illustrations scratched onto stone or ivory, to elegantly minimal sculptures; there are even carvings designed to create the illusion of movement when viewed from different angles or rotated (above) - a form of prehistoric animation.

The masterpieces in the latter part of the show include - and sometimes combine - both precisely observed, superbly rendered naturalism, and more abstract work that is still beautiful, but much harder to interpret.

Carved mammoth tusks

"The brain likes to tease us," says Cook. "We don't just represent things with great realism and naturalism, we like to break things down into patterns. That sparks your imagination, and makes you curious and questioning.

“What’s so spectacular about the modern brain, and the mind that it powers, is that it doesn't just make everything simple, it pushes us to new ideas and new thoughts."

After tens of thousands of years, the objects displayed in this extraordinary exhibition still have the power to do just that.

Ice Age Art: Arrival of the modern mind runs at the British Museum from 7 February 2013

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Mexico oil firm blast caused by gas build-up: official

MEXICO CITY: The explosion that killed 37 people at the headquarters of Mexico's state-owned oil firm was caused by a gas build-up, officials said Monday, ruling out a bomb attack.

The announcement ended a four-day-long mystery that had sparked a wave of speculation about the cause of the blast at the complex that houses the offices of Pemex in the heart of Mexico City.

The explosion tore through an annex of the company's skyscraper in the capital last Thursday, injuring more than 120 people.

"We were able to determine that the explosion was caused by an accumulation of gas in the basement" of the annex, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told a news conference.

The blast caused floors to collapse, killing 37 people, he said.

"We confirmed that there are no traces of explosives," he said, adding that the blast did not leave a crater and that the victims did not have the type of dismemberment caused by bombs.

-AFP/fl

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Boy safe, suspect dead after Alabama bunker standoff

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Mom was whisked away to reunite with child, state legislator says


• FBI says boy was rescued after negotiators felt he was in danger


• Boy has been taken to a hospital in Dothan, another state legislator said


• Witness said he heard explosion followed by gunshots

Midland City, Alabama (CNN) -- A 5-year-old child abducted from a school bus six days ago is safe, and his kidnapper is dead, ending a nearly weeklong ordeal for the little boy, his family and a small Alabama town.

The child appeared to be OK when he was freed, law enforcement officials said. The boy was taken to Flowers Hospital in nearby Dothan, Alabama, state trooper Kevin Cook said.

The child -- identified only by his first name, Ethan -- was to be reunited with his mother and grandmother at the hospital, state Sen. Harri Anne Smith said.

The legislator said she was just arriving for an afternoon visit with Ethan's mother when authorities whisked away the mother and her family. Smith said the woman's smile, and the smiles of others, gave away the good news. The two hugged before authorities drove the mother away.

Ethan, the rescued boy, arrives on stretcher Monday at Flowers Hospital in Dothan, Alabama.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Steve Richardson at the scene said negotiations had broken down with 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes, the child's abductor, and Dykes was "observed holding a gun."

Believing the child to be in imminent danger, an FBI team entered the bunker at 3:12 p.m. CT (4:12 p.m. ET) and rescued the boy, Richardson said, adding that the hostage-taker is dead.

One neighbor said he was outside when he was startled by the sound of an explosion.

"I heard a big boom and then ... I believe I heard rifle shots," said Bryon Martin, who owns a home near the bunker where the boy had been held since Tuesday.

It was a loud noise that "made me jump off the ground," he said.

After the good news spread through the community, travelers on a nearby highway honked their horns as they drove by.

The FBI had borrowed from the U.S. military high-tech detection equipment similar to the technology used to discover homemade bombs in war zones, three Defense Department officials told CNN.

It was unclear whether the equipment, which is not readily available to civilian law enforcement, had been used by the FBI.

One of the defense officials said no members of the military were involved in the rescue. They would have been acting a technical advisers, the official said.

Last Tuesday, police said, Dykes boarded a Dale County school bus and demanded the driver hand over two children.

The driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., refused, blocking access to the bus's narrow aisle as at least 21 children escaped out of the back emergency door, authorities said.

The gunman killed Poland, then grabbed a kindergartner before barricading himself and the boy inside a nearby bunker he had built.

Smith said Monday that Ethan has siblings, but none of them were on the bus last week.

In the ensuing days, officials said little about what was going on in the bunker or in their strategy, or what -- if anything -- Dykes wanted.

"Based on our discussions with Mr. Dykes, he feels like he has a story that's important to him, although it's very complex," Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said Monday before the hostage situation ended. He didn't elaborate.

Ethan suffers from Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit disorder, state Rep. Steve Clouse said during the week.

Dykes told authorities that he had blankets and a heater in the bunker, and authorities have previously said the bunker -- built 4 feet underground -- has electricity.

Authorities did not say how they were communicating with Dykes.

Meanwhile, residents and business owners in Midland City put up blue, red and black ribbons in support of the boy and Poland. Blue and red are the local school colors, and black is in honor of the slain bus driver.

The U.S. Navy confirmed Monday that Dykes served in the military from 1964 to 1969.

Naval records list him as an aviation maintenance administrationman third-class who served with units based in California and Atsugi, Japan. The job entails clerical work related to aircraft and aircraft maintenance, according to the Navy's job description.

Neighbors and officials had described Dykes as a survivalist with "anti-government" views.

Even as the hostage situation continued Monday morning, plenty of police were on hand as schools in neighboring Ozark, Alabama, reopened for the first time since the incident began.

Dale County schools remained closed but were to reopen on Tuesday, the district said.

In Ozark, school officials decided to begin strictly enforcing a 15-foot safety zone around school buses required by state law. The law prohibits any unauthorized adults, including parents, from approaching within 15 feet of a school bus stop. If an unauthorized adult gets too close, bus drivers are supposed to close bus doors or drive away, if necessary, school officials said

CNN's Victor Blackwell and Martin Savidge reported from Midland City; Carol Cratty and Barbara Starr contributed from Washington; Michael Pearson and Steve Almasy reported and wrote from Atlanta; and CNN's Vivian Kuo and Larry Shaughnessy also contributed to this report.

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Crashed bus owner failed one-third of safety inspections

YUCAIPA, Calif. The company linked to a tour bus involved in a deadly crash in Southern California failed more than a third of federal vehicle safety inspections in the last two years.

Play Video

Calif. tour bus crash kills at least 8

17 Photos

Tour bus crashes in Calif.

U.S. government records show that buses operated by the firm Scapadas Magicas of National City, Calif., flunked 36 percent of random inspections on their vehicles — in some cases for brake and tire problems.

That's higher than the national average for similar companies — a 21 percent failure rate.

Records also show the company had no crashes in the past two years.

The California company had an overall "satisfactory" rating from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, but records show three-quarters of similar companies had better safety records.

Lettering on the 1996 bus indicates it was operated by Scapadas Magicas.

At least seven people were killed in Sunday night's crash. More than three dozen people were injured, and at least 17 were still hospitalized, including at least five in critical condition. One is a girl.

Authorities lowered the death count from 8 to 7 on Monday.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team to the scene.

CBS Station KCBS reports that the bus, carrying dozens of men, women and children from Tijuana, was on its way back to Mexico Sunday evening after a day in Big Bear when the driver lost control just after 6:30 p.m., about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

Investigators say the bus flipped and landed on a pickup truck towing a trailer. A black Saturn was also rear-ended.

The crash left State Route 38 littered with body parts and debris, and the bus sideways across both lanes with its windows blown out, front end crushed and part of the roof peeled back like a tin can.

One person in the pickup truck was injured. The fate of the passengers in the car was not clear, but at least two people were in the Saturn, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Mario Lopez.

Investigators will determine if mechanical failure or driver error was to blame. The bus driver, who survived but was injured, told investigators the vehicle had brake problems.

"It appears speed was a factor in this collision," said Lopez.

Crews worked through the night to recover the dead, but one body remained aboard the bus early Monday, said Rocky Shaw, a San Bernardino County coroner's investigator.

Officials hadn't been able to retrieve the body because the front end of the bus was dangling over the edge of the roadside.

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Boy Safe, Kidnapper Dead as Ala. Standoff Ends

A week-long standoff in Alabama, where a retired trucker held a 5-year-old boy hostage in an underground bunker, has ended with the kidnapper dead and the child safe, according to law enforcement.

With a SWAT team positioned near the bunker entrance, authorities used an explosive charge to help gain entry into the bunker and neutralize the suspect, Richard Lee Dykes, according to a law enforcement source with direct knowledge.

Officials had been able to insert a high-tech camera into the bunker to monitor Dykes' movements, and they had become increasingly concerned that he might act out, the source said.

"FBI agents safely recovered the child who's been held hostage for nearly a week," FBI Special Agent Steve Richardson said at a news conference.

The agent said negotiations with Dykes "deteriorated" in the past 24 hours.

"Mr. Dykes was observed holding a gun," Richardson said. "At this point, the FBI agents, fearing the child was in imminent danger, entered the bunker and rescued the child."

Joe Songer/AL.com/AP Photo

Alabama Hostage Crisis: Boy Held Captive for 7 Days Watch Video

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Police Officials Thank Hostage Taker for Taking Care of Child Watch Video

The boy, identified only as Ethan, "appears physically unharmed" and is being treated at a hospital, authorities said.

Dykes, 65, is dead, but officials have not yet provided details on how he died.

"Right now, FBI special agent bomb technicians are in the process of clearing the property for improvised explosive devices," the FBI said in a written statement. "When it is safe to do so, our evidence response teams, paired with state and local crime scene technicians, will process the scene."

PHOTOS: Worst Hostage Situations

Dykes allegedly shot and killed a school bus driver last week and threatened to kill all the children on the bus before taking the boy, one of the students on the bus said.

"He said he was going to kill us, going to kill us all," Tarrica Singletary, 14, told ABC News.

Dykes had been holed up in his underground bunker near Midland City, Ala., with the abducted boy for a week as police tried to negotiate with him through a PVC pipe. Police had used the talks to send the child comfort items, including a red Hot Wheels car, coloring books, cheese crackers, potato chips and medicine.

Dykes was a decorated Vietnam vet who grew up in the area. He lived in Florida until two years ago, the AP reported, and has an adult daughter, but the two lost touch years ago, neighbor Michael Creel said. When he returned to Alabama, neighbors say he once beat a dog with a lead pipe and had threatened to shoot children who set foot on his property.

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Bug protects itself by turning its environment to gold

Mythical King Midas was ultimately doomed because everything he touched turned to gold. Now, the reverse has been found in bacteria that owe their survival to a natural Midas touch.

Delftia acidovorans lives in sticky biofilms that form on top of gold deposits, but exposure to dissolved gold ions can kill it. That's because although metallic gold is unreactive, the ions are toxic.

To protect itself, the bacterium has evolved a chemical that detoxifies gold ions by turning them into harmless gold nanoparticles. These accumulate safely outside the bacterial cells.

"This could have potential for gold extraction," says Nathan Magarvey of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who led the team that uncovered the bugs' protective trick. "You could use the bug, or the molecules they secrete."

He says the discovery could be used to dissolve gold out of water carrying it, or to design sensors that would identify gold-rich streams and rivers.

The protective chemical is a protein dubbed delftibactin A. The bugs secrete it into the surroundings when they sense gold ions, and it chemically changes the ions into particles of gold 25 to 50 nanometres across. The particles accumulate wherever the bugs grow, creating patches of gold.

Deep purple gold

But don't go scanning streams for golden shimmers: the nanoparticle patches do not reflect light in the same way as bigger chunks of the metal – giving them a deep purple colour.

When Magarvey deliberately snipped out the gene that makes delftibactin A, the bacteria died or struggled to survive exposure to gold chloride. Adding the protein to the petri dish rescued them.

The bacterium Magarvey investigated is one of two species that thrive on gold, both identified a decade or so ago by Frank Reith of the University of Adelaide in Australia. In 2009 Reith discovered that the other species, Cupriavidus metallidurans, survives using the slightly riskier strategy of changing gold ions into gold inside its cells.

"If delftibactin is selective for gold, it might be useful for gold recovery or as a biosensor," says Reith. "But how much dissolved gold is out there is difficult to say."

Journal reference: Nature Chemical Biology, DOI: 10.1038/NCHEMBIO.1179

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Shackleton Antarctic bid makes landfall

SYDNEY: An exhausted British-Australian expedition recreating Ernest Shackleton's 1916 crossing of the Southern Ocean in a small boat made landfall Monday after a perilous 12-day journey.

Led by renowned adventurer Tim Jarvis, the team of six reached Peggotty Bluff on rugged South Georgia, where they landed their vessel in the same place Shackleton and his men beached the James Caird nearly 100 years ago.

The next leg will see three of the team tackle a two-day climb to 900 metres (2,950 feet) over the mountainous, crevassed interior of South Georgia.

That will take them to the old whaling station at Stromness on the other side of the island, where Shackleton and his men, with little more than the clothes on their backs, raised the alarm about the sinking of their ship, the Endurance.

Jarvis said the boat trip, using only the equipment, navigational instruments and food available to Shackleton, was extremely tough, describing it as "truly about endurance -- mental as much as physical".

"There was just no way to keep dry. The waterproofing with wax didn't work," he said.

"Below deck, the boat was constantly damp and being on watch meant that you were directly exposed to the elements. On a few occasions a big wave washed over the deck and down the hatch soaking everything down below."

Along with Norway's Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole in 1911, Australian explorer Douglas Mawson and Briton Robert Falcon Scott, Shackleton was among the great Antarctic explorers.

When he set off on his third trip to the region in 1914 with the ship Endurance, he planned to cross Antarctica via the South Pole.

But the vessel became trapped in 1915, and sank 10 months later as it was crushed by the advancing ice. Shackleton and his crew lived on the floating ice until April 1916, when they set off in three small boats for Elephant Island.

From there, Shackleton and five crew members made the treacherous voyage to South Georgia, reaching their destination 16 days later to face the mountainous trek.

All members of the Endurance mission were eventually rescued with no fatalities.

It was his granddaughter Alexandra who approached Jarvis, who in 2007 re-enacted Mawson's 1912 odyssey across the frozen continent, about recreating their ordeal.

-AFP/fl

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Former Navy SEAL is shot dead at Texas gun range

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: The gun range was in a "very remote area" with no witnesses, an official says


• The two men killed, Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield, worked to help veterans with PTSD


• The suspect confessed to his sister, but not to police, authorities say


• Eddie Ray Routh is held on $3 million bond after being arraigned on murder charges

(CNN) -- A former Navy SEAL known for claiming a record number of sniper killings in Iraq was one of two men shot dead at a Texas gun range, allegedly at the hands of a fellow military veteran, officials say.

Chris Kyle, the author of the best-selling "American Sniper," and Chad Littlefield, also a veteran, were gunned down Saturday afternoon on the grounds of the expansive Rough Creek Lodge and Resort in Glen Rose, Texas, southwest of Fort Worth, law enforcement officials said.

About four hours afterward, and 90 miles from where those two men's bodies were found by a hunting guide, authorities arrested suspect Eddie Ray Routh, 25, on a capital murder warrant.

Routh's family members could not be reached immediately for comment Sunday. No attorney has made a public statement on his behalf.

Eddie Ray Routh, a former Marine, is believed to have left the service in 2010

Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant said Sunday that he believes the suspect is in the process of seeking a court-appointed attorney.

While Routh's sister said he had admitted shooting Kyle and Littlefield, he didn't explain to her why he did it, Bryant said. Routh isn't believed to have confessed to local authorities about killing the two men. The motive for the killings is unclear.

"I don't know that we'll ever know," Erath County Sheriff's Capt. Jason Upshaw said Sunday. "(Routh) is the only one that knows that."

Sheriff: Suspect spent four years in Marines

The Rough Creek Lodge is a large facility that draws couples getting married, business people using its conference center and families looking for a getaway. Hunting and shooting sports are some of the many recreational options available on its grounds.

Kyle, Littlefield and Routh were three such visitors, arriving together around 3:15 p.m. (4:15 p.m. ET) Saturday and proceeding to a shooting range within the resort's 11,000 acres, Bryant told reporters Sunday. The range is in a "very remote part" of the sprawling complex, Upshaw explained.

"So there wasn't anybody anywhere close to that," he said, explaining there are no known witnesses.

The first sign something was wrong came when a hunting guide tied to the facility found 38-year-old Kyle and 35-year-old Littlefield -- both unconscious -- around 5 p.m., Bryant said.

He went to the lodge and called 911. Law enforcement officers followed up and found the bodies but no sign of Routh. He had taken off in Kyle's black Ford pickup, the Erath County sheriff said.

Around the time an all-points bulletin went out for that truck, authorities got a call from Routh's sister, who reported that her brother had driven about 65 miles to her home in Midlothian, Texas, and admitted to shooting Kyle and Littlefield.

Routh left his sister's house, and police eventually caught up with him -- and the truck -- shortly before 8 p.m. at his home in Lancaster, a Dallas suburb some 90 miles northeast of the shooting scene. While talking with authorities outside, he'd somehow gotten back in the truck and sped away.

Authorities chased him and finally stopped him, around 9 p.m., after spiking his tires some four to six miles down the road, according to Bryant.

Routh did not struggle with officers as they were arresting him, Bryant said. On Sunday morning, he was arraigned on murder charges and ordered held on $3 million bond.

After that, Routh sat in a jail cell "all by himself," separated from the rest of the inmate population and watched closely by guards, according to Bryant.

So who is Eddie Ray Routh?

The sheriff said that Routh spent four years in the Marines. He is believed to have left the service in 2010, according to a U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. The official did not have information on where Routh served or whether he took part in combat.

Public records show Routh previously lived at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, though his latest address was in Lancaster, Texas.

At the time of shooting, he was unemployed. Bryant said that Routh's mother, a longtime schoolteacher, "may have reached out to Mr. Kyle to try and help her son."

'He led by example,' Kyle's friend says

Kyle learned to shoot on hunting trips with his father, then went on to serve four combat tours in Iraq with the SEALs, though his official biography notes he also worked with Army and Marine units. He received two Silver Stars and other commendations before leaving the Navy in 2009 -- claiming that, in his years as a sniper, he'd killed more than 150 people, which he called a record for an American.

In the interview with Time magazine (like CNN, a part of Time Warner), Kyle said he did not regret any of his kills. He also said he was "comfortable" with the possibility that that part of his life might be over.

He added, "I'm a better husband and father than I was a killer."

After having worked under the radar for so many years, he became a celebrity with the 2012 release of his book, which became a New York Times best-seller.

Defending his decision to divulge so much detail despite the secretive nature of the SEAL world, Kyle told Time that he was "not trying to glory myself."

"I didn't want to put the number of kills I had in there," he said. "I wanted to get it out about the sacrifices military families have to make."

He said that while killing did not come easy at first, he knew it meant saving lives.

"The first time, you're not even sure you can do it," he said in the interview. "But I'm not over there looking at these people as people. I'm not wondering if he has a family. I'm just trying to keep my guys safe. Every time I kill someone, he can't plant an (improvised explosive device). You don't think twice about it."

At one point, Kyle wrote, he shot a woman who was carrying a grenade while with her toddler. But he did not kill a child in Baghdad's Sadr City area who had a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. "According to the rules of engagement at the time, you could kill anyone with an RPG on sight. That day I just couldn't kill the kid. He'll probably grow up and fight us, but I just didn't want to do it.

He said the American public lives "in a dream world. You have no idea what goes on on the other side of the world. The harsh realities that these people are doing to themselves and then to our guys. And there are certain things that need to be done to take care of them."

After leaving the military, he founded Craft International, a military training company. Kyle also spoke up on current events, including accusing President Barack Obama of being "against the Second Amendment" because of his gun control initiatives, according to a video interview with guns.com.

'Military-style' weapons and the law

The married father of two children established the nonprofit Fitco Cares Foundation to help veterans battling PTSD get access to exercise equipment.

Littlefield, who leaves behind a wife and children, was a friend and another veteran who worked to help people with PTSD, said Fitco Director Travis Cox.

In a statement, the foundation described Kyle as an "American hero" and pledged to carry on his mission.

"What began as a plea for help from Chris looking for in-home fitness equipment for his brothers- and sisters-in-arms" struggling with PTSD turned into an organization that will continue after his death," Cox said in a statement.

"Chris died doing what he filled his heart with passion -- serving soldiers struggling with the fight to overcome PTSD. His service, life and premature death will never be in vain. May God watch over his family and all those who considered Chris a true friend."

His friend, Jason Kos, offered similarly glowing sentiments, telling CNN's "Early Start Weekend" that Kyle was "a man of incredible character."

"He led by example," Kos said. "He always stopped to take time to talk to whoever was around him. Just incredibly humble, very funny as well."

CNN's Susan Candiotti, AnneClaire Stapleton, Barbara Starr, Emily Smith and Nick Valencia contributed to this report.

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