Suspicion -- The building on this busy street corner in the heart of downtown Charlotte Amalie is the one from which $1 million worth of cocaine disappeared. At the time, it was the Justice Department's crime lab. It is now run by the Police Department's Forensics Division. The cocaine theft has been linked to the still-unsolved murder of Police Officer Steven Hodge. Investigators are pursuing leads that Hodge was killed because he found fellow law officers took the cocaine.

The mystery baffles even the FBI: How did 20 pounds of cocaine disappear from the Justice Department crime lab without a trace?

The lab, now used by the police Forensics Division, is just south of Vendors Plaza. It is on the corner of Veterans Drive and Talbod Street, one of the busiest intersections in Charlotte Amalie.

The building has two exits; one door opens onto the sidewalk facing Vendors Plaza, the other is sealed shut. The windows are protected by wrought-iron burglar bars.

The building had a silent alarm monitored by ADT Security Systems, just three blocks away.

On the night of the theft in April 1993, the alarm never went off, say sources close to the investigation.

Police who probed the theft of the cocaine found no signs of forced entry and no clues.

ADT personnel will not comment on the matter. But sources say the company's records have been subpoenaed by the FBI.

Sources close to the case say the alarm did not malfunction. It did not ring because someone turned it off.

The cocaine, valued at more than $1 million, was supposed to be in a 6-by-4-foot steel safe with a 10-inch thick, solid steel door.

It wasn't.

It was on the floor.

The Narcotics Strike Force had seized the cocaine after drug traffickers tried to air-drop it to cohorts waiting off the St. Thomas shores. The cocaine was supposed to be held as evidence in an ongoing drug investigation, federal investigators say. At the time the cocaine was stolen, they had identified possible targets.

Why was such a large quantity of cocaine, so important to an investigation, left out in the open in an unsecured area?

Nobody's saying.

The three people who worked at the crime lab at the time have refused to publicly discuss the theft. All three are believed to have had the code to turn off the alarm and keys to the building.

Who else had the code and keys?

Nobody's saying.

Zolly White was the crime lab technician. Since the theft, he and his family have moved to Tallahassee, Fla. He refuses to comment on the missing cocaine.

John Richards, who managed the lab, isn't talking.

The lab's secretary, Lorraine Anim, who now works with the Attorney General's Office, also isn't talking.

Justice Department sources say the cocaine was in the lab for testing. But FBI spokesman Bill Carter says only a tiny sample from each bag of cocaine would have been needed for such tests. The rest, Carter says, should have been locked away in a secured area or turned over to the federal authorities.

Breaches in security in keeping evidence in the territory are commonplace and have weakened dozens of cases, letting countless criminals go free.

The Justice Department has since turned the crime lab over to the police. But that department's record when it comes to keeping evidence is no better.

Auditors for the Interior Department's Inspector General's Office issued a report this year that was highly critical of how the Police Department keeps its evidence.

"Property storage areas were in disarray and not adequately secured from unauthorized access, property records were incomplete and inaccurate," the report said.

The report, released in January, recommended much tighter controls over evidence. Otherwise, auditors said, "the various weaknesses in the Police Department's control of confiscated property could result in the inability to successfully prosecute accused criminals because of the loss or damage of items needed for evidentiary purposes."