Source: Feds Crack Pizza Man's Collar Bomb Death
POSTED: 5:14 pm EST February 17, 2007
UPDATED: 5:27 pm EST February 17, 2007
PITTSBURGH -- Federal investigators gathered in Pittsburgh on Friday to review the case of a pizza delivery man who died when a bomb locked onto his neck exploded.
An unidentified law enforcement source told The Associated Press that authorities figured out how pizza deliveryman Brian Wells wound up in the middle of a bizarre bank robbery scheme that ended with his death.
Authorities have never said whether they believe Wells, 46, was voluntarily involved in the robbery of a PNC Bank in suburban Erie on Aug. 28, 2003, or forced to participate.
"This investigation has been extremely difficult," said U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan at a news conference on Friday. "The agents have done a tremendous job in piecing together very complicated pieces of a very long and protracted investigation."
Detailed notes found in Wells' car talked about what to do with the bank money and how he was supposed to travel to various locations within a certain amount of time to find clues for unlocking the bomb, investigators said.
Family members and friends think Wells was an innocent victim. On brianwells.net, they have posted copies of the notes and suggested he was abducted by several people before the bank incident.
"We now believe that we have a much better understanding of what happened on Aug. 28, 2003," said Buchanan. "This investigation is nearing a close, and we hope that it will be concluded in the very near future."
Buchanan's office met Friday morning with members of the state police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
No arrests have been made, and no charges have been filed. But the source said the case has been solved and indictments are expected, likely by next month.
The law enforcement official told the AP that the government is confident they know how and why Wells died, as well as who was involved.
According to the AP, the FBI has interviewed a woman named Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, who's in prison for murdering her boyfriend the same month that Wells was killed.
The body of that boyfriend was found in the freezer of a man whose home was near where Wells claimed someone locked the bomb around his neck.
The man in whose home the body was found has since died.
Armstrong was once acquitted in the death of another boyfriend.
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