Pipe-Bomb Suspect Arrested in Nev.
advertisement
E-Mail This Article
Printer-Friendly Version
Subscribe to The Post
By Scott Sonner
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, May 7, 2002; 9:05 PM
RENO, Nev. –– The 21-year-old college student wanted in the string of pipe bombs left in mailboxes across the Midwest was arrested Tuesday outside Reno, the FBI said.
Luke J. Helder of Pine Island, Minn., was taken into custody without incident after dropping at least one gun out a car window, said Alan Davidson, spokesman for the Nevada Highway Patrol.
"It is him," said Gayle Jacobs, an FBI spokeswoman in Las Vegas.
Helder, who was driving west on Interstate 80 when he was stopped, was captured more than 1,500 miles from where some of the bombs were found in Illinois. He was taken to jail in Reno, but charges were not immediately announced.
His capture came just eight hours after the FBI issued an all-points bulletin for Helder and said it wanted to question him about the 18 pipe bombs left in mailboxes in five states since Friday.
His father, at the family's home in Minnesota, also pleaded with Helder: "Please don't hurt anyone else. ... You have the attention you wanted."
Six people have been wounded – none seriously – by the bombs that were left in mailboxes in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas. Most of the bombs were accompanied by the notes warning that more "attention getters" were on the way.
FBI agent Jim Bogner in Omaha, where the investigation is centered, had described Helder as "a person of interest." He refused to say how he became part of the case.
But a college newspaper in Wisconsin said it gave the FBI a seven-page letter Tuesday that it received over the weekend and was signed with Helder's name.
The letter was postmarked in Omaha on Friday – the day the first bombs were found, in Iowa and Illinois, and a day before bombs turned up in Nebraska – and its first page is identical to the anti-government notes found with the bombs.
The letter also said, in part: "I will die/change in the end for this, but that's ok, hahaha paradise awaits!"
The FBI refused comment when asked about the letter sent to The Badger Herald at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
At Helder's family home an hour's drive southeast of Minneapolis, his father, Cameron, read a statement urging his son to call home.
"I really want you to know that Luke is not a dangerous person," Cameron Helder said. "I think he's just trying to make a statement about the way our government is run. I think Luke wants people to listen to his ideas, and not enough people are hearing him, and he thinks this may help."
He added: "Luke, you need to talk to someone. Please don't hurt anyone else. It's time to talk. You have the attention you wanted. Luke, we love you very much. We want you home safe."
Helder was enrolled as a junior majoring in art and industrial design at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie, 60 miles from his home, but had apparently not attended classes since at least April 24. He played guitar and sang in a punk rock band called Apathy.
On a Web site for the band, two songs were posted, "Conformity" and "Back and Black," but the lyrics were unintelligible.
The issue of conformity is a theme in the anti-government notes, which say, in part: "To 'live' (avoid death) in this society you are forced to conform/slave away. I'm here to help you realize/ understand that you will live no matter what!"
From the start, the FBI called the bomb attacks domestic terrorism. But over the weekend, former FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt had speculated that the writer of the notes was an older person, based on the phrase "attention getter."
A photo provided by the FBI shows a smiling Helder in a white dress shirt and multicolored tie. His hair is cut short. "He has been described as an intelligent young man with strong family ties," Bogner said.
FBI agents searched Helder's apartment in a two-story building near campus. Menomonie police spokesman Brian Swantz said two houses nearby were evacuated because of "potential danger" but refused to elaborate.
The first eight bombs were found Friday in Illinois and Iowa, including six that injured four letter carriers and two customers. Eight more were found in Nebraska and the 17th turned up in Salida, Colo., on Monday. None of those exploded.
The FBI said all 17 of those bombs came from the same source. The latest device was found Monday afternoon at a home in Amarillo, Texas, and was described as being similar to the others.
The device differed from the others in that it was found in a residential neighborhood and not a far-flung rural route. It was placed in a mailbox on a post in a yard behind a low chain-link fence, about 25 feet from the front door but not accessible from the street.
Roberto Martinez, 44, found the bomb in his mailbox along with two notes in a pink-hued sandwich bag. He described the bomb as a metal pipe about 6 inches long with a bunch of wires, two needles, black electrical tape and two end caps.
Martinez said police told him it did not explode because it lacked a battery.
Notes were found with all the bombs. The FBI did not immediately confirm whether the Texas note was the same as the others.
Officials have said that the pipe bombs appeared to be triggered by being touched or moved.
Thousands of customers across the Midwest and into Colorado have been asked to leave their mailbox doors open or remove them altogether for the safety of their mail carriers.
––– |
