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West Virginia man charged in mail bomb incident in Houston County
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
A West Virginia man faces a maximum jail sentence of 20 years for mailing a bomb to his former neighbor in Houston. According to published reports, Mark Steven Anderson of Marmet, W.Va. has been charged in federal court for mailing a bomb with the intent to do bodily harm.
According to Houston County Sheriff Doug Ely, the bomb did not go off when the package was opened July 22 by Jerry Lee of rural Houston.
“Luckily, he opened the packaging flap that was not connected to the mechanism that would have ignited the home-made bomb,” Ely stated Monday morning.
The Houston County Sheriff’s Department was contacted by Lee after he reached into the box and found what appeared to be two sticks of dynamite connected to a fuse.
Houston County Captain Gary Eddy dismantled the home-made bomb, which was made from toilet paper tubes filled with gun powder, sealed with wax, with a fuse, matches and a striker plate.
“If Lee had opened the package from the other end, he could have been seriously injured or worse,” Ely said. “There was enough gun powder in those tubes to do serious damage.”
Ely said Anderson’s return address and tracking information were on the package, making it very easy to trace who sent the bomb. Obviously, Anderson figured the bomb would go off, destroying the packing slip and return address.
“Criminals are usually pretty dumb. It didn’t take much to locate the person who sent this,” Ely added.
In late July authorities in West Virginia questioned Anderson about the home-made mail bomb. He stated he built the bomb several years ago and mailed the package to “scare” his former neighbor.
Anderson is facing federal charges in both Minnesota and West Virginia in this incident. No other information was available at this time.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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