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CNN Live Today

Helder's Father Tipped Off Local Police

Aired May 08, 2002 - 12:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now with the latest breaking news on that story we've been telling you about, the pipe bomber, we go to Kelli Arena. She's live in Washington. New information was just received. It was actually that father that tipped off the Feds, is that right, Kelly?

KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kyra. It was his father who called local law enforcement. It turns out Helder's roommate got a little concerned when Helder didn't show up. He never came home one night and it just wasn't like him, so the roommate called Helder's father who had received a letter from his son, which made him worry about his son.

And so, the father told the roommate to go into Helder's room, check it out. The roommate did and investigators say that he found evidence in that room, which led him to believe that Helder was involved in making pipe bombs.

At that point, Helder's father called local law enforcement, which in turn passed the information on to the FBI. Both his father and he roommate were interviewed by the FBI, and that's when Helder's name was made public. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Kelli Arena, thanks for that late-breaking information there. We'll continue to check in with you as you get more. And as we said, some of the people who know Luke Helder say they're shocked at his arrest. He hails from Pine Island, Minnesota and was attending school at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

That's where we find CNN's Jeff Flock. Hello, Jeff.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hi Kyra.

Yes, that information which came from Menomonie Police, CNN Producer Mike Aller (ph) was talking to the police there and getting that information earlier this morning. The first indication that it was the father who got that first indication, that's why yesterday he was the first one who seemed to indicate that this all made some sense, because all of the folks that we've been talking to here, people that he worked with, people he went to school with, people that he lived with here at the apartment complex here in Menomonie, all saying pretty much this did not compute.

We've been talking to those folks throughout the past couple of days and one of the people we talked to was his roommate freshman year, who I asked if there was anything at all, any kind of political discussions they'd ever had, anything like that. He said it just didn't make sense.

JOHN ENGER, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-STOUT: We had no indication whatsoever that there was a potential problem here. There's no record of any kind of student discipline, no arrests or citations at the university, nothing to indicate that this was in the offing.

FLOCK: In addition to the roommate, that was John Enger, who speaks for the University of Wisconsin here in Menomonie, indicating there was no record that Mr. Helder had here while at the university.

I also talked to his employers. He worked for Service Master, cleaning office buildings here in Menomonie. They say they ran a background check on him and he had nothing that came up in the background check either. People that worked with him there also said he seemed fairly happy, easygoing guy, never made any sort of anti- government comments. And so all of it doesn't really seem to compute here in the town of Menomonie, Wisconsin.

One other thing I do want to share with you, as we try again to try and figure out exactly what it is that may have been in his past or anything that may have led to this. I want to take a quote from the letter that Helder allegedly sent to the school newspaper at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There are two school student newspapers there. He sent it to the Badger Herald.

One of the lines in there is it talks about conforming, and I think we might have it, "conforming to the boundaries and restrictions imposed by the government only reduces the substance of your lives" says part of that letter.

We should point out that Helder's band was called Apathy. Perhaps its most prominent song, and they put out a CD and it used to be, until the server crashed on their band's web site, it was a song called "Conformity," and thought it is somewhat difficult to make out the lyrics of the song, it talks about the pain of conformity.

Helder -- the Helder you see by the way on the web site you see with long, blond locks, to sort of approximate his idol, his idol being Kurt Cobain of the group Nirvana. Helder apparently held Cobain in high regard and tried to model the group Apathy that he put together, a garage grunge band, after Nirvana.

So perhaps if we mine the lyrics of those songs a little deeper, maybe we'll see something of the political vent that Helder did not portray to any of his friends or perhaps even his family. That is the latest here from Menomonie, Wisconsin. We'll continue to dig into the subject of Lucas John Helder and get back with you when we have more. That's the latest from here, Kyra back to you.

PHILLIPS: Jeff, you have been finding out a lot of information about this young man talking to friends and roommates. We just got this new information. Kelli Arena was able to confirm this for us that it was his father that indeed tipped off the FBI, not the roommate. Have you had a chance to talk with any family members recently, Jeff?

FLOCK: No, the family is in Pine Island, which is quite a good distance from here. It's just north of Rochester, Minnesota, and we are here in Menomonie, Wisconsin, which is east of Minneapolis, so a good bit away from where he actually grew up to the university here and, of course, this is where he's lived for the past three years on campus while at school.

But no, as I said, yesterday the father was the first indication that this all seemed to make sense, because his statements to reporters yesterday sort of seemed to indicate, oh yes I get it that my son is, you know, is mixed up in this, while everybody here was saying, "gee, we just don't see it."

So, and that information by the way from the Menomonie Police Department her, really the first indication it was the dad who had tipped them off, after having gotten the letter from his son. And, of course, the pipe bomb material that was referenced to by the roommate was here at this apartment complex here in Menomonie.

PHILLIPS: All right, Jeff Flock, thanks so much. And, Jeff, I understand we just got some video in too and this is of Helder being transferred from jail to Federal Court.

As we said at the beginning of this newscast that he was in the process of -- or getting ready rather to head to Federal Court in Reno, Nevada to be arraigned on charges filed in Iowa that of course home of the two people that were maimed by bombs that were planted in the mailboxes.

Once again, fresh video here of Helder leaving the jail, heading to Federal Court. We will bring you the results of that arraignment as soon as we get it.

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