B.C.Retirees's fingertips 'blown off' by mail bomb,11 Sept /18

[dotr]

rbbm
B.C. retiree injured in targeted blast that went off when he opened mail package
"PORT ALICE, B.C. — A retired pulp mill worker has been identified as the victim of a mail bomb attack in the tiny village of Port Alice on Vancouver Island.

The Mounties say they are investigating a targeted blast that went off when the victim opened a mail package at a home on Tuesday.

Cathy Anderson said Thursday her neighbour Roger Nepper, who has lived in Port Alice for more than 30 years, was injured in the explosion.

She said her husband saw Nepper holding an injured hand when he climbed into a neighbour’s vehicle to be taken to the local health clinic."

Deputy Mayor Bruce Lloyd said Nepper is in his mid 60s and is known in the community of about 800 people as a former local boxing coach.

“He was a boxer, a very good boxer,” said Lloyd. “He taught boxing when he first moved up here. He taught the whole town boxing.”

 

[Deleted member 102539]

Witness says exploding package sends Port Alice man to hospital
According to Shirley Bowick, the wife of Roger Nepper, the package was picked up from the post office in the remote North Island village today, addressed to the couple. She indicated that it had arrived from a relative in the Yukon.

Bowick said the package was around five inches long, six inches wide, and two inches in depth. Her husband had brought it back to the house, towards the end of Clark Drive in Port Alice, and went to open it up in the bathroom while Bowick was nearby.

As for why the package was sent to them, Bowick believed it could have been due to a dispute over money.
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Retiree was the victim of mail bomb blast in B.C.: neighbour
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Police arrest 73-year-old Whitehorse man in relation to mail bomb

 

[Woodland]

... the package was picked up from the post office in the remote North Island village today, addressed to the couple. She indicated that it had arrived from a relative in the Yukon.

Witness says exploding package sends Port Alice man to hospital

Unreal that the 73 year-old had enough knowledge to build a mail bomb, but was dumb enough to put his name on it. Surely he's facing a 10 year sentence for this.

 

[LadyL]

did he think it would all blow to smithereens & the cops wouldn't see his name/address on it?

 

[kmclaren]

I think this is new information - the man arrested and the victim are brothers...

Yukon man accused of sending mail bomb to brother in Port Alice charged with attempted murder

 

[dotr]

I think this is new information - the man arrested and the victim are brothers...

Yukon man accused of sending mail bomb to brother in Port Alice charged with attempted murder

That is a sad surprise, how awful that the victim was allegedly mail bombed by his own brother!

 

[kmclaren]

And now this, the brother who sent the bomb has died.

https://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/man-accused-of-mailing-bomb-to-his-brother-in-b-c-has-died/

 

[dotr]

And now this, the brother who sent the bomb has died.

https://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/man-accused-of-mailing-bomb-to-his-brother-in-b-c-has-died/

Yukoner Leon Nepper, accused of mailing a bomb to his brother in Port Alice, B.C., was found “in medical distress” at Whitehorse Correctional Centre on Sunday. He was transported to hospital and died at 1:25 p.m.

 

[dotr]

Huge article. rbbm
He lost his fingers when his brother mailed them a bomb — and this B.C. couple will never find out why

"Roger Nepper was close to his brother Leon before the explosion. Six months later, his injuries bother him less than the unanswered questions, as Leon died shortly after his arrest.
News Mar 04, 2019 by Jeremy Nuttall

"Roger Nepper and his wife, Shirley Bowick, look through old photo albums belonging to Roger's brother, Leon"
"Up until a six-week silence before the explosion, Roger said, the two were close and spoke on the phone often. There was no falling out, no historic grudge."

Roger said. "At the end, the last five years, he started to hate people that drank, and the last little bit he started to hate women 'cause, I know, he had all these problems with women."

Bowick said she felt it too, just before Leon left the couple's home for the last time. He became aggressive, accusing her of trying to alienate him. She recalls him chuckling in a disturbing manner at tragedies on television, such as mass shootings in the United States, or during "psychotic parts" in movies.

"His deranged laughing made me really nervous," she said. "That was, to me, a warning sign."

Bowick is convinced Leon addressed the bomb to her because he knew she often opened her mail in her car after picking it up from the local post office. Leon wanted her dead, she said, though the reason why eludes her."

"James R. Fitzgerald is a retired FBI agent who played a key role in capturing Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber. Over nearly two decades, Kaczynski maimed two dozen people and killed three via letter bombs before his arrest in 1996.

Fitzgerald said mail bombers are a "unique" kind of criminal because they are often more intelligent than the average offender. They have to be, he said, to construct a bomb without blowing themselves up in the process.

Leon's ability to build an improvised explosive device (IED) and have it detonate when opened, rather than en route or during construction, shows he was a "proficient" bomb maker, he said.

"None of these guys is successful on their very first device," Fitzgerald said. "Leon no doubt had some practice runs with these IEDs."

He likely set off prototypes in canyons or in the wilderness of the Yukon before sending his package to Port Alice. The extra materials found at his Whitehorse home could have been leftovers and don't necessarily mean he planned more bombings, Fitzgerald said."