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Thursday, March 19, 2009

Woman Charged For Space Needle Bomb Threat

Posted by on Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 11:13 AM

After a two year delay, King County Prosecutors have filed charges against a 48-year-old woman for calling in a bomb threat at the Space Needle.

The details are incredibly sad.

On November 10th 2007, at about 8:30 pm, Janine Wells allegedly called 911 from inside the Seattle Center and told the operator she'd see a man planting a bomb on the Space Need observation deck.

Later that evening, police records say, an employee found a black bag with the "BOMB" and "are you sure 'bout that" written on the side.

Police did not find a bomb in the bag. However, records say, officers did find several "half eaten sandwiches, packets of sugar and used napkins," as well as Wells' Social Security card and drivers license, prescriptions for anti-psychotic medications and a pillow with a note written on it, which stated "Brandon Wells was murdered! On 10/09/07 was 19 years old. Get off our asses. Died a horrible, painful death."

Two days later, police records say, Wells turned her self in and said she'd made the threat to "draw attention to the murder of her son Brandon."

Wells' confession was corroborated by her brother, a sergeant in the Hoquiam Police Department, who helped police identify his sister's voice on the 911 tape. He told officers at the time that his sister "suffers from...severe depression and paranoia since the death of her son, Brandon," who, according to police records, "died of natural causes while incarcerated in [...] Texas."

Dan Donahoe, spokesman for the King County Prosecutor's office, says the two year delay in charging Wells was the result of issues with fingerprint matching.

 

Comments (6) RSS

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1

I can certainly understand how the death of a child would cause someone to lose it. An insanity defense surely seems appropriate here.
Posted by formanoreasta on March 19, 2009 at 11:50 AM
2
Good point.

Also, at least she didn't threaten the PI Globe ...
Posted by Will in Seattle on March 19, 2009 at 11:54 AM
3
In a rational country, we would not prosecute the psychotic but give them medical attention.

Oh, but that would mean everyone had health insurance.

And that we were rational about criminality and mental health issues.
Posted by Simac on March 19, 2009 at 12:26 PM
4
I hear there was also a bottle of wine in the "bomb" bag, that she had failed to pay for.
Posted by chris on March 19, 2009 at 2:05 PM
5
died at 19 of natural causes?
Posted by doubt it on March 19, 2009 at 4:23 PM
6
Maybe Stompy the Policeman had gotten a hold of him.
Posted by subwlf on March 20, 2009 at 12:23 PM

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