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CNN Live Today
New Revelations in Mailbox Pipe Bomb Case
Aired May 08, 2002 - 14:18 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: There are new revelations today in the mailbox pipe bomb case, including what the FBI says is Luke John Helders own admission of his involvement in that case.
CNN's Martin Savidge is covering the story from Reno, Nevada, and CNN's Jeff Flock is in Menomonie, Wisconsin, where Helder attended college.
Let's go first to you, Marty.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, 21-year-old Luke Helders got an appearance in federal court slated for 3:00 local time. That'll be 6:00 Eastern time. It's described as an initial court appearance. He's already been transferred to the federal court building in downtown Reno.
He was arrested last night about 40 miles northeast following a high speed chase outside of this city. And apparently, when he was arrested, a search by authorities of his vehicle turned up two weapons, as well as a number of what they said were explosive devices.
Then, early this morning he was transferred to the Washau (ph) County Detention Facility and when he was brought in here the sheriff said that the young man, the 21-year-old, was smiling, that he was polite, that he was cordial, and that he was cooperative. But he did not show any signs of remorse.
He was brought here by the FBI. The FBI has allegedly been talking with him. No one is saying anything about a confession, but the young man did allude to suicide, and as a result of that, he has been placed under a 24-hour suicide watch.
Now, this morning he was transferred to that federal court, but before so he said it was very important that he talk to his family back in Minnesota. He was allowed to have a 10-minute conversation with his family. Allegedly, what he wanted to find out was were his parents still standing by him. And the answer reportedly was yes, they were.
Now, let me show you something. This is the federal affidavit that has been filed by the FBI, and it shows that they have a fairly strong case, allegedly, against this young man being involved in this mailbox pipe bombing spree, and in a lot of cases they use his own words in the form of letters and notes that he sent back to family and friends in Minnesota and also phone conversations in which he indicates he may have had a role in these pipe bombings.
And also too, he says that, the affidavit claims, yesterday he phoned two friends in Minnesota and confessed to them that he was involved in the pipe bombing spree throughout the Midwest.
Now, another interesting thing here is the details it goes into a young man's alleged life on the run during this bombing spree and how close authorities came to possibly arresting him before last night.
In fact, three times he was pulled over by law enforcement officers.
The affidavit says that on May 4th he was driving his Honda Accord and he was stopped at 12:17 AM, that's Central time, near St. Edward, Nebraska. That's about 12 miles, according to the affidavit, from Albion (ph), Nebraska, where a pipe bomb was found in a rural mailbox.
Now, when the law enforcement officer approached Helder, Helder said "I didn't mean to hurt anybody" or words to that effect. Well, the officer said, that's all well and good, but you're only being stopped for speeding at that particular time.
Then on May 4th, after he was let go from that, at approximately 2:00 PM Central time, Helder was stopped near Watonga, Oklahoma for failure of wearing a seatbelt. Helder advised the state trooper he spent Friday outside of Omaha and that he was on his way towards Arizona. The trooper cited Helder for an expired driver's license and let him go merrily on his way.
And then, a little over 24 hours later, May 5th, at approximately 2:53 PM Mountain time, Helder stopped again for speeding, this time at Fowler, Colorado. The trooper advised that the driver appeared to be very nervous and had watery eyes, like he was going to cry.
Now, on May 6th a pipe bomb was discovered in a mailbox in rural Colorado, and again, the young man had been sent on his way.
It should be pointed out that during all of these stops, the FBI had not publicly proclaimed that Helder was a suspect in this bombing spree. Still, it does make for some very insightful reading -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Martin Savidge, thank you.
Now for more about this young man for those who knew him as an ordinary music-loving college student, CNN's Jeff Flock is in Menomonie, Wisconsin with that part of the story. Also an interesting part of the story -- Jeff.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's true. I do want to pick up a little bit on how authorities came to have Luke Helder as a suspect. Some more details emerging on that now, both from sources here, local law enforcement officials, as well as Kelly Arina's (ph) sources at Justice. Let me run through that for you again.
It was on Monday that Helder's dad placed a call to the Menomonie Police Dept. here saying that he has received a letter from his son, which made him suspicious that he might be connected somehow to the pipe bombings.
The Menomonie police then placed a call here to the building behind me, apartment 24, which Helder shared with a roommate. Got the roommate on the phone, the roommate confirmed that Helder was on the road since Thursday, and reported to police that the roommate had found under the bed materials that could be used to make a bomb.
And we believe based on that affidavit that that included a box of nails, paper clips, as well as two black plastic bottles which appeared to have some sort of gunpowder in them, as well as a receipt for pipe casings.
Now, even if the father had not made the call, though, there are indications that that information would have come to authorities anyway, because a separate call was being placed to the local sheriff here.
Dennis Smith is the sheriff of Dunn County.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENNIS SMITH, DUNN COUNTY SHERIFF: I received a phone call from a friend of the roommate, and I was at home. They wanted to come out to my house. I just told them I'd meet them at the sheriff's department. I wanted to get this thing going. And they were concerned and upset that they thought that this Lucas was involved in this bomb making and so forth.
The roommate had been back and forth in contact with the father, by telephone. The father had left a couple of messages, one or two messages, and then finally the roommate contacted the father, talked to him, and I think that's when they put everything together, and that's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) when the father called.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FLOCK: Obviously, a lot of information based on the affidavit as well as all of this, that this information began to come out after the pipe bombing spree began.
But in terms of indications prior to that, any kind of foreshadowing or knowledge about how Mr. Helder allegedly felt about the government or any sort of violent tendencies or behaviors, there is no evidence to any of that. And as we've been reporting throughout this day, folks that we have talked to that knew Luke Helder, both at the university as well as the apartment complex behind me, as well as at his workplace -- nobody had any indication.
That's the latest from Menomonie, Wisconsin, Kyra. Back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right, Jeff Flock, thanks so much.
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