Even after 20 years, a mailbox bomb explosion that propelled Doris Zimmerman across a Jones County highway, leaving her with severe hand injuries, bruises and hearing loss, is something she could never forget.
“I was going to go to the Martelle elevator that day and went out to put a letter or card in the box. … That was the wrong thing to do,” Zimmerman, now 81, recalled this month from her home on Linn-Jones Road in rural Anamosa. “It exploded and (the force) blew me across the highway. I was kind of stunned. It smashed my hands a little bit and hit my legs — they were bruised.”
Zimmerman was one of three Iowans injured May 3, 2002, by one of 18 homemade pipe bombs that Lucas “Luke” John Helder, then 21, a Wisconsin college student, constructed and concealed in mailboxes in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas.
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Helder, who later was diagnosed with schizophrenia and committed to federal mental hospital, made national headlines after the FBI issued an all-points bulletin and he was captured following a high-speed chase near Reno, Nev.
On May, 7, 2002, he told authorities after his arrest that he was trying to make a “smiley face” pattern on the map with where he placed the bombs. The first 16 planted in Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska were arranged in circles to show the eyes. Two found in Colorado and Texas started the smile, according to news reports.
A Flourish map
The five bombs in Iowa were at Zimmerman’s home in Anamosa, and also Tipton, Dubuque, Farley and Eldridge. Only two other bombs exploded in Iowa — one in Tipton that injured Delores Werling, then 70, and in Dubuque that injured Ken Dolphin, then 22, a rural postal carrier.
Only six — in Iowa and Illinois — of the 18 bombs exploded and some of them included anti-government notes, according to news reports. Helder also had six additional pipe bombs in the trunk of his father’s Honda Accord when he was arrested.
Doris’ husband, Richard, who was sitting nearby his wife in the living room during the recent interview, said he was down the road working in one of their farm fields when he heard the blast and saw smoke. He then saw his wife driving the truck to him. After seeing her, he jumped in and rushed her to a Cedar Rapids hospital.
“A friend in Viola, about 2 miles away, heard the explosion,” Richard said. “It blew the mailbox about 135 feet across the field there.”
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Doris downplayed her injuries during the interview, but Richard said her hands were seriously mangled and required surgeries to reconstruct some fingers. It left some of her fingers disfigured but she also has arthritis in her hands, which contributed to the damage. Doris was in the hospital about a week and had several surgeries on her hands, he said.
When they got to the hospital, the staff was concerned there might also have been white powder in the mail — at about the same time, people were receiving anthrax hoaxes -- so they hosed her off “from top to bottom,” she said.
“You don’t think about something like that happening,” Doris said. “He (Helder) must have come in the middle of night. We didn’t hear anything and didn’t have a dog back then. Richard usually took out the mail but I’m glad it was me instead because it was field time (for him).”
The explosion also caused Doris hearing loss for days and the shrapnel injured her legs. She still has a hard or rough area on her thigh — mainly calcium build up — that was hit by a 6-inch piece of pipe of the bomb.
Her wedding ring setting and band also were damaged in the explosion, and she lost her clothes and “favorite” jacket,“ which was taken for evidence to Washington, D.C.
Overall, Doris considers herself lucky. Instead of standing in front of the mailbox that day, she was in a hurry and reached around from the side, which prevented more serious injuries.
After Helder’s arrest, FBI agents came to the Zimmermans and told them about Helder’s “smiley face” plan, Richard said. They brought a police dog and combed through the yard looking for evidence. The 6-inch pipe and a trigger mechanism were found in the ditch area, he said.
“They blocked off the road for days,” Doris said.
Helder was first indicted May 7, 2002, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa on two charges of using an explosive to damage personal property that resulted in injury to a person and possession of a pipe bomb. He pleaded not guilty and his lawyer, Jane Kelly, now U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals judge, filed his notice of intent to claim insanity at trial.
Helder was charged in the other states, but those charges were dismissed because Iowa filed first and had the most evidence and strongest case, retired Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Murphy said.
“I was going to go to the Martelle elevator that day and went out to put a letter or card in the box. … That was the wrong thing to do,” Zimmerman, now 81, recalled this month from her home on Linn-Jones Road in rural Anamosa. “It exploded and (the force) blew me across the highway. I was kind of stunned. It smashed my hands a little bit and hit my legs — they were bruised.”
Zimmerman was one of three Iowans injured May 3, 2002, by one of 18 homemade pipe bombs that Lucas “Luke” John Helder, then 21, a Wisconsin college student, constructed and concealed in mailboxes in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas.
Advertisement
Helder, who later was diagnosed with schizophrenia and committed to federal mental hospital, made national headlines after the FBI issued an all-points bulletin and he was captured following a high-speed chase near Reno, Nev.
On May, 7, 2002, he told authorities after his arrest that he was trying to make a “smiley face” pattern on the map with where he placed the bombs. The first 16 planted in Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska were arranged in circles to show the eyes. Two found in Colorado and Texas started the smile, according to news reports.
A Flourish map
The five bombs in Iowa were at Zimmerman’s home in Anamosa, and also Tipton, Dubuque, Farley and Eldridge. Only two other bombs exploded in Iowa — one in Tipton that injured Delores Werling, then 70, and in Dubuque that injured Ken Dolphin, then 22, a rural postal carrier.
Only six — in Iowa and Illinois — of the 18 bombs exploded and some of them included anti-government notes, according to news reports. Helder also had six additional pipe bombs in the trunk of his father’s Honda Accord when he was arrested.
Deafening explosion
Doris’ husband, Richard, who was sitting nearby his wife in the living room during the recent interview, said he was down the road working in one of their farm fields when he heard the blast and saw smoke. He then saw his wife driving the truck to him. After seeing her, he jumped in and rushed her to a Cedar Rapids hospital.
“A friend in Viola, about 2 miles away, heard the explosion,” Richard said. “It blew the mailbox about 135 feet across the field there.”
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Doris downplayed her injuries during the interview, but Richard said her hands were seriously mangled and required surgeries to reconstruct some fingers. It left some of her fingers disfigured but she also has arthritis in her hands, which contributed to the damage. Doris was in the hospital about a week and had several surgeries on her hands, he said.
When they got to the hospital, the staff was concerned there might also have been white powder in the mail — at about the same time, people were receiving anthrax hoaxes -- so they hosed her off “from top to bottom,” she said.
“You don’t think about something like that happening,” Doris said. “He (Helder) must have come in the middle of night. We didn’t hear anything and didn’t have a dog back then. Richard usually took out the mail but I’m glad it was me instead because it was field time (for him).”
The explosion also caused Doris hearing loss for days and the shrapnel injured her legs. She still has a hard or rough area on her thigh — mainly calcium build up — that was hit by a 6-inch piece of pipe of the bomb.
Her wedding ring setting and band also were damaged in the explosion, and she lost her clothes and “favorite” jacket,“ which was taken for evidence to Washington, D.C.
Overall, Doris considers herself lucky. Instead of standing in front of the mailbox that day, she was in a hurry and reached around from the side, which prevented more serious injuries.
After Helder’s arrest, FBI agents came to the Zimmermans and told them about Helder’s “smiley face” plan, Richard said. They brought a police dog and combed through the yard looking for evidence. The 6-inch pipe and a trigger mechanism were found in the ditch area, he said.
“They blocked off the road for days,” Doris said.
Initial criminal charges
Helder was first indicted May 7, 2002, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa on two charges of using an explosive to damage personal property that resulted in injury to a person and possession of a pipe bomb. He pleaded not guilty and his lawyer, Jane Kelly, now U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals judge, filed his notice of intent to claim insanity at trial.
Helder was charged in the other states, but those charges were dismissed because Iowa filed first and had the most evidence and strongest case, retired Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Murphy said.
Iowa mailbox pipe bomb victim recalls explosion 20 years later
A Jones County woman propelled across a highway from a mailbox pipe bomb recalls the trauma 20 years later. Luke Helder, a Wisconsin college student charged with planting the bombs in five states in 2002, remains incompetent to stand trial and committed to a federal mental facility.
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