# what became of the collarbomb pizza delivery case? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 2006, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085 "2006-04-29T04:01:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/21 "2007-02-18T18:15:18Z")
[QUOTE=Lissa] Dunno if it’s true, but the brother’s website makes this claim: If it’s true, that just horrifies me. I know the officers had to fear for their saftey, but goddam, what an awful way to die. Assuming all of this is true, this last part throws me for a loop. It sounds as though he was, uh, \* intact \*after the bomb exploded, at least enough to be alive, and they were forced to remove his head to take off the bomb. Why would the family be given only “parts” to inter? [/QUOTE] Well, if they cut his head off, then when the body was returned to the family it would be in parts, and probably wrapped in cloth. Don’t know why it woudld be in a “group” of parts, though. Maybe the authorities insisted on keeping tissue for purposes of evidence? ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/22 "2007-02-18T19:00:58Z")
A story in the [Pittsburgh paper](http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07048/762875-85.stm) has more details, some of which contradict the claims in the AP and ABC News stories that the case has been solved and that indictments are imminent. > [@](#): > > At their meeting yesterday, Ms. Buchanan said she directed investigators to take several additional steps to conclude the case. > > She would not go so far as to say that the mystery has been solved. > > She also would not confirm an Associated Press report that quoted a law enforcement official saying that proposed indictments could be presented to a grand jury as soon as next month. > > “I would never comment on an expected indictment,” she said yesterday evening. “Until the grand jury hears that testimony and determines there’s probable cause, it would be improper to say that.” ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/23 "2007-02-18T19:05:43Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] Well, if they cut his head off, then when the body was returned to the family it would be in parts, and probably wrapped in cloth. Don’t know why it woudld be in a “group” of parts, though. Maybe the authorities insisted on keeping tissue for purposes of evidence? [/QUOTE] I apologize that I wasn’t being clear. The impression that I got from the family’s website was that they were given a small portion of his remains loosely bundled into a cloth rather than (as I would expect) a torso and a head in a body bag. It could be, though, that I just misunderstood what they were trying to say. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/24 "2007-02-19T00:23:57Z")
The family’s site has been updated quite a bit. [Here](http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.brianwells.net) is the internet archive of the site, the April 2005 page says what **Lissa** said it did. ETA: On the current incarnation it’s under “official desecration”, which as you look at the killer’s notes will show as the list scrolls. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/25 "2007-02-19T13:52:32Z")
[QUOTE=Ender\_Will] Ordering a pizza tonight, I was reminded of [this case](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,96109,00.html) from a few years ago. [/QUOTE] Yes, we had almost expunged that bit of extreme wierdness from the national public psyche, but somebody dredged that up for a second helping. But overall I smell litigation, it may be the family lawyer’d up. It may be a fevered bank-heist “gone wrong”, as the media is wont to say. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2007, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/26 "2007-05-22T15:20:56Z")
You know the one; where the pizza delivery guy wound up with a bomb around his neck and robbed a bank. He later died when the bomb exploded. Last February, I heard the case was solved and details would be forth coming in a month. Well? It’s been way past a month. What’s the latest info on the case? ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2007, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/27 "2007-05-22T15:24:43Z")
Supposedly the case has been solved, but details have not been released yet. [Here’s the wiki site.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Douglas_Wells) And an [article.](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17190943) ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2007, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/28 "2007-05-22T16:15:53Z")
[This article](http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070513/NEWS02/705130389&SearchID=73281843149919) from last week says that “A federal grand jury has been meeting on the Wells case at the U.S. District Courthouse in Erie. No one has been indicted.” Details of the grand jury proceedings are secret, but one individual seems to have identified herself as the target of an indictment, based on her public professions of innocence in a letter to the Erie News-Times. > [@](#): > > Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong believes she is being framed in the August 2003 death of Brian Wells. > > She blames the FBI, and she blames William A. Rothstein, her two-time fiance who died of cancer at age 60 in July 2004. > > Diehl-Armstrong, 58, makes the claims in a one-page letter she sent to the Erie Times-News from the State Correctional Institution at Muncy, where she is serving a sentence for pleading guilty but mentally ill in the shooting death of her boyfriend, James Roden, in 2003. > > Referring to the FBI, Diehl-Armstrong said “they continue to frame me in the Wells case.” [This article](http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/NEWS02/703250393) from the same paper details what the FBI believes happened. There are three suspects in the case: two are in prison (Diehl-Armstrong and Ken Barnes) and the other one has died (Rothstein). The motive remains unclear, although the Erie TImes-News does report this: > [@](#): > > Investigators are looking into the possibility that the motive behind the Wells plot is related to Diehl-Armstrong’s desire to get what she thought was a large inheritance from her father. The FBI is known to have reviewed a private criminal complaint claiming a robbery of $133,000, a complaint in which Diehl-Armstrong alleges Barnes offered to kill her father. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/29 "2007-07-11T04:27:35Z")
[Here’s the latest news](http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3361781&page=1). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/30 "2007-07-11T18:20:43Z")
Here’s more: [http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/11/collar.bomb.charges/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/11/collar.bomb.charges/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/31 "2007-07-11T18:21:44Z")
Here’s the latest: [http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/11/collar.bomb.charges/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/11/collar.bomb.charges/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/32 "2007-07-11T18:23:08Z")
side question- was a reason ever given for why the cops didn’t at least put a bullet proof vest on the guy between his chest and the bomb? ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/33 "2007-07-11T18:26:33Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] side question- was a reason ever given for why the cops didn’t at least put a bullet proof vest on the guy between his chest and the bomb? [/QUOTE] The police were waiting for the bomb squad. They would not have approached the bomb, even with the guy attached to it, nor would they have done anything to jostle the device in any way, including trying to cushion it or put something underneath it. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/34 "2007-07-11T18:28:19Z")
Have the police ever responded to why it took a half hour to _call_ the bomb squad? ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/35 "2007-07-11T19:14:37Z")
Merged the zombie thread with the newer one. **Gfactor** , General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/36 "2007-07-11T19:34:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Have the police ever responded to why it took a half hour to call the bomb squad? They were confused by the pizza delivery guarantee and thought they could get the bomb squad services at a discount if they took more than 30 minutes to get there. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/37 "2007-07-11T20:10:09Z")
[Here’s](http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/crim/usdab70907ind.html) a link to the indictment. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/38 "2007-07-11T21:29:41Z")
Nothing I’ve read says why the cops think the pizza guy was involved- has the link with him and the perps been reported? ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/39 "2007-07-11T21:42:11Z")
Plus, what’s the motive? I must be missing something here. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085/40 "2007-07-11T21:50:57Z")
[QUOTE=bordelond] Plus, what’s the motive? I must be missing something here. [/QUOTE] The latest CNN article seems to say that the motive was for the ringleader (the girl) to obtain money from the bank robbery that she could use to put a hit out on her dad. [http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/11/collar.bomb.charges/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/11/collar.bomb.charges/index.html) ETA: But, like Wee Bairn, I don’t think we’ve seen any information on why the police think the pizza guy was involved. I’m sure they have something, but I doubt they’ve released it yet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-became-of-the-collarbomb-pizza-delivery-case/405085.md?page=3)