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American Morning

Pipe Bomb Suspect Unlike FBI Profile

Aired May 08, 2002 - 09:05   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Up front this morning, the chief suspect in the pipe bomb spree is arrested in Nevada, but the suspect, a 21- year old college student Luke John Helder bears few similarities to the older person FBI profilers had thought was responsible for the bombs.

CNN's Jeff Flock has been speaking to people who know the suspect and they are all surprised, too. He joins us this morning from Menomonee, Wisconsin.

Good morning -- Jeff.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Paula, good morning to you,

Few similarities to himself, apparently. We are outside his apartment complex this morning. Perhaps you see Galloway Creek Apartments (ph); this is where Luke Helder lived. And I must tell you, sometimes when you poke around on somebody charged with a crime, you begin to get a sense of how it makes sense. I must tell you that in the case of Luke Helder, it does not really make sense, based on the people we've talked to here, as well as the University of Wisconsin's Stout Campus here in Menomonee where he was a Junior Art Major.

We've got pictures that I want to show you of his apprehension out in Nevada, and I want to draw your attention to what he was wearing. Perhaps you can see on the pictures we have the Kurt Cobain T-shirt. We talked some about the garage grunge band that Luke Helder put together. Cobain was his idol. He modeled the band, which was called Apathy after Cobain and after Nirvana. We poked around on the Web site yesterday and listened to some of that. Someone suggested that perhaps the seeds of his discord is found in his music, but certainly not found in the people we've talked to here.

Still the evidence mounts. I want to give you some sense of that letter that was turned into authorities, yesterday. It was sent, allegedly by, Helder to the University of Wisconsin, Madison Campus, to the school newspaper there. One of the quotes from it: "It seems killing a famous person would get the same media attention as killing numerous unfamous humans." He says later in the letter, "I will probably die/change in the end for this. But that's OK, paradise awaits."

That was not the Luke Helder that the people we've talked to here on this campus knew.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) he was, I didn't see him actually even knowing how to do something like that, you know, so that whole part kind of astonished me.

FLOCK: So in your head, this could be all a mistake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, easily, you know, I just don't see this guy, Luke, doing something like that at all.

FLOCK: Did he talk about politics, government, anything like that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, Luke didn't really seem like anti- anything. He's the type of kid; he seemed like a pacifist to me is the best word to describe him. He kept to himself, played his guitar -- real nice kid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLOCK: That, one of his friends as well as his freshman roommate. Their only complaint about Luke Helder was that he sometimes played the guitar too loud. And again, I think we may have that picture of the T-shirt, the Kurt Cobain T-shirt that he was wearing when he was apprehended -- very much into Nirvana, very much into his band, Apathy, which seemed to break up, near as we can tell, about a year ago. Based on some of the comments, yesterday, on the Web site, Paula, the ones that dated back before yesterday, it was apparently a fairly successful grunge band. And broke up, as we said, about a year ago. And what happened to Luke Helder between then and now, we're still trying to piece together. That's the latest, back to you.

ZAHN: Yes, Jeff, I'll tell you. Based on everything you've just reported and we heard from one of his teachers early this morning, what they tell us does not square at all with what investigators believe this young man pulled off. I mean, one of his teachers told us this morning, he was a sweet guy. That although he wasn't a great student, he did pay attention. He was helpful to other students in class, and the words used over and over again was, he was "sweet."

FLOCK: Nobody has got a bad word about this guy. I really -- the best indication we've got is from the dad, who we heard from yesterday also who sort of indicated that he, kind of, knew where his son was coming from. But nobody that knew him here had any indication.

ZAHN: Strange indeed.

Jeff Flock, thank you so much for that update.

FLOCK: Thanks Paula.

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