Updated: October 24, 2002, 4:29 p.m.

A priest who provided comfort to one of the men arrested in connection with the sniper shootings helped provide a break in the case when he called authorities to report what he had been told, NEWS4's Pat Collins reported.

One of the suspects spoke to the priest in a nonconfessional conversation shortly after the sniper shooting of a man outside a steak house in Ashland, Va., Saturday, NEWS4's Pat Collins reported Thursday.

The suspect told the priest about a robbery and murder in Montgomery, Ala. Investigators who followed up on that tip eventually learned a fingerprint was found on a piece of paper at the scene of the liquor store shooting on Sept 24. That fingerprint led police to 17-year-old John Lee Malvo.

That reportedly led police to a home in Tacoma, Wash., where they learned Malvo had stayed with a man named John Allen Muhammad. Late Wednesday night, a tree stump from the back yard of that home was dug up and sent for testing to determine whether bullet fragments in the trunk match the sniper's bullets.

Muhammad reportedly lived at the Tacoma duplex, and then left the area earlier this year. But, neighbors say he returned sometime over the last three months and was heard doing target practice in his backyard.

Investigators also went to Malvo's high school in Bellingham, Wash., to obtain writing samples to compare them with letters the sniper wrote to police. There are reports that Mohammad and Malvo lived in a homeless shelter near the school.

A defense official said Muhammad was an expert marksman. Army records show Muhammad, also known as John Allen Williams, served 10 years in the U.S. Army, serving in Germany, Saudi Arabia, Fort Ord, Calif., and Fort Lewis, Wash. Muhammad was honorably discharged in 1995 as a sergeant, Army rank E-5. Officials said he served in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. NEWS4 reports Muhammad also served with the National Guard. Though Fort Lewis has elite sniper training program with 115 firing ranges, officials there have said Muhammad was not officially a part of that program and that he was a mechanic at the base.

NEWS4 reports police have found a trap door and an assault rifle in the trunk of a car used by two men who were arrested in connection with the sniper slayings. The small trap door reportedly has a view to the outside and has the diameter of a pole.

NBC News said investigators found a Bushmaster assault rifle in the car (left) of the two men arrested overnight at a rest stop in Frederick, Md. That weapon fires .223-caliber rounds, which are the types of bullets police said the Washington area sniper uses.

NEWS4 reports a scope and a tripod were also discovered in the vehicle.

Meanwhile, the car driven by the two men has been towed to a Montgomery County, Md., location and is being examined for evidence. The 1990 Chevrolet Caprice was sealed at an Interstate 70 rest stop in Maryland and loaded onto a trailer.