RIVERTON - A week after federal and local authorities virtually shut down a neighborhood here, residents still have questions.
    "It's nice to be back to normal," said Lisa Pardee, who lives next door to Thomas Tholen, whose home on the 3000 West block of 13400 South was searched by the FBI and local authorities March 2.
    "I'd like to get in the loop. We haven't heard anything," Pardee said.
    FBI officials remain tight-lipped about what was or wasn't recovered from Tholen's home and three West Jordan storage units that were searched under sealed warrants.
    The search resulted after Tholen's cousin, Roger Von Bergendorff, entered a Las Vegas hospital and slipped into a coma last month after possibly being exposed to the highly deadly toxin ricin, authorities have said. Bergendorff lived at Tholen's Riverton home in the past.
    Bergendorff's condition has yet to improve, said FBI Special Agent Juan Becerra.
    Las Vegas police recovered firearms, vials of ricin, and an anarchist-type book tabbed to a section on ricin and castor beans (from which ricin is made) from Bergendorff's room, authorities have said.
    The find led FBI and Salt Lake Valley authorities to Tholen's home, where Bergendorff had stayed.
    "We are continuing the investigation, trying to determine how this whole thing came about . . . where

it [the ricin] came from and who produced it," Becerra said. "There's a strong indication who that person might be, but without his side of the story we may never really know."
    Tholen has been cooperative with authorities, but couldn't be reached for comment at his home Sunday. Neither could the owners of Jordan Self Storage, where Bergendorff rented the storage units.
    Last week's search came as a surprise to many in the neighborhood, including Donna and Merlyn Lloyd, who were awakened by a Salt Lake County sheriff's deputy knocking on their door at about 7 a.m. on March 2. The deputy warned that authorities would be searching Tholen's home for dangerous chemicals and told the elderly couple to stay indoors.
    They had seen yellow crime scene tape around Tholen's home a few doors down the night before and "knew something was evidently going on," Donna Lloyd said Sunday. Looking outside their windows the following morning, they saw how serious the situation really was.
    Authorities had shut down their street, 13400 South from 2700 West to about 3100 West. The area was choked by police, fire engines, an Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit, an FBI mobile command unit and people in hazmat suits.
    Still, the couple weren't worried.
    "We were quite surprised when we woke up," Merlyn Lloyd said.
    "We felt the right people were on it," Donna Lloyd added. "It was quite an experience."
    ngonzalez@sltrib.com