The Badger Herald may not have been the only newspaper to receive a letter from alleged pipe bomber Lucas Helder, sources said Wednesday.
Helder, a student at UW-Stout, who admitted after being arrested in Nevada Tuesday to planting pipe bombs in mailboxes in five different states, sent a manifesto to the Herald entitled “Explosions! A Bit of Evidence for you!”
Doug Hoellen, owner of the Suburban Inn in Omaha, Neb., where Helder resided, said there were 10 to 12 other letters included in the pile in addition to a letter sent to the Herald.
“He checked in Friday afternoon,” Hoellen said. “Later he came back to the desk with a whole wad of envelopes. [The desk clerk] said, ‘My, that’s a lot of mail!'”
Hoellen said the envelopes were addressed to different universities, although he could not comment on specifics.
No other universities have come forward yet with information related to the letter.
Helder is being transported to Iowa to face the first of several charges, a federal prosecutor said. He made his first court appearance Wednesday at a removal hearing in Reno, Nev.
It seems Helder often used letters as a way to communicate his anti-government sentiments. A letter Helder sent to his father was key in identifying him as a suspect, according to papers filed with the criminal complaint in U.S. District Court Wednesday.
Cameron Helder received the letter Monday at his home in Pine Island, Minn. It contained similar anti-government statements to those in the Herald letter, including the phrase, “Mailboxes are exploding.”
The FBI interviewed Helder’s roommate at UW-Stout Tuesday, who said he received a note May 2 from Helder saying he was going to Madison for a weekend party. The Mifflin Street Block Party was held Saturday, May 4. News reports have said Helder’s girlfriend is a UW-Madison student.
Helder left a message Saturday that he wouldn’t be home that night or the following night. The roommate said Helder’s father called later, saying he received a disturbing note from his son.
“If I don’t make it through this ordeal then I’ll have to get out of here for awhile,” the note said.
That night, Helder’s roommates and two other people found a white plastic shopping bag with bomb-making materials under his bed.
Helder told the FBI he made a total of 24 pipe bombs out of tape, paper clips and Christmas tree bulbs.
Helder admitted manufacturing eight pipe bombs in his apartment in Wisconsin, the affidavit said.
“Helder further admitted to assembling an additional 16 pipe bombs at a motel in Nebraska,” the affidavit read.
Authorities located Helder by tracking a pair of cellular phone calls he made to friends in Minnesota. He is being held on suicide watch at the Washoe County Jail in Nevada.
Helder had been stopped by the police three times on his spree, twice for speeding and once for failing to wear a seatbelt. The Denver Post found he had picked up a hitchhiker mid-Monday morning after checking out of an EconoLodge in Salida, Colo.
Helder faces federal charges in at least three Midwestern states. Attorneys in the northern district of Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa have all filed charges against Helder. The Iowa counts charge Helder with using an explosive “to maliciously destroy property affecting interstate commerce,” and “using a destructive device to commit a crime of violence” that wounded a woman while she was opening her mailbox. He is expected to be returned to Iowa and could be sent to prison for life if convicted.
