The Air Force Office of Special Investigations said Tuesday the man has not been charged but was ordered into pretrial confinement at a military jail on McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita by his commander while the investigation continues. The 43-year-old airman was arrested Aug. 9 and was expected to be charged in mid-September, said Air Force OSI spokeswoman Linda Card.

The Air Force was working with local law enforcement and public health officials as part of the investigation, Card said.

"The public health people outside the base are all working with the military health people, the mayor's office and our law enforcement people -- so this isn't being kept secret from the public," Card said.

The airman faces an Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a preliminary hearing, in September to determine whether there is enough evidence to refer his case to a general court martial, Card said. Two earlier military hearings found that his pretrial confinement was "correct," she said. Military law allows for confinement without charges while investigations are ongoing.

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Scott Roeder, 52, faced a mandatory life prison term for gunning down Dr. George Tiller in the back of Tiller's Wichita church last May. Tiller was one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions.

Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert could have made the Roeder eligible for parole after 25 or 50 years, but gave him the harsher sentence because he said the evidence showed Roeder stalked Tiller before killing him.

Wilbert also sentenced Roeder to serve an additional year in prison on each of two counts of aggravated assault for threatening two church ushers in the melee. That means -- allowing for possible time off those sentences for good behavior -- Roeder won't be eligible for parole for 51 years and eight months.

During his trial, Roeder testified that he killed Tiller in a bid to save unborn children.

In a rambling statement in court Thursday, Roeder blamed Tiller's death primarily on the state for not outlawing abortion.

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