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They appear very healthy, are well behaved and well educated.

None of them appear to have been in any way abused or neglected."

However, an associate professor of psychology and behavioural sciences disagreed somewhat.

He would later testify at Congress, quote, "...they believed they would all be attacked and that the outsiders would kill everyone in the compound and that Koresh would come back and kill the bad guys, uniting everyone in heaven.

All of the young girls were being prepared to be David's wives."

One of the older girls expressed distress, now that she had been released from the compound, that she would not be able to be picked by David as one of his brides.

On Tuesday March 9, a week and a half after the siege began, the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services officially stripped the children's parents of custody rights.

To regain custody, they would have to pass state tests,

Friday March 5 began positively, with Koresh sending out a nine-year-old girl.

It seemed that the negotiators were making slow but steady progress.

However, concerns arose when authorities read the note the girl's mother had pinned to her jacket.

It was addressed to the girl's older sister and explained that by the time she read the message, the mother would be dead She added that once all of the children were out, the adults would die This again raised concerns about a possible mass suicide Whenever the FBI queried David Koresh or Steve Schneider about this possibility, they reassured them there was no such plan

Koresh's conversations with the FBI sometimes took on a violent tone.

At one point, he told negotiators that he and his followers had been planning for a confrontation with the government since 1985.

He threatened to blow the FBI's tanks to pieces.

Still trying to build a rapport with Koresh, the FBI offered to send in a suture kit so his wounds could be treated, as well as photos and videos of the children who'd left the compound to prove they were doing well.

Koresh accepted this offer.

These items were delivered to the bullet-riddled front doors of Mount Carmel, along with a video camera so the Branch Davidians could record videos of their own.

The negotiators hoped that this might provide a decent window into life inside the compound.

And it did.