ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 29, 1996 TAG: 9607010064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WOODBRIDGE
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Authorities found a pipe bomb in a locker at the Northern Virginia Community College's Woodbridge campus and believe it may be linked to an ex-FBI agent's bizarre plot against his estranged wife.
About 11 p.m. Thursday, the state police detonated the 12- to 15-inch bomb.
Police and prosecutors would not say how they learned that the bomb had been placed in a locker. A search warrant affidavit about the explosive was sealed Friday.
A school official told the Potomac News that detectives found locker keys in a car owned by Eugene Bennett, an ex-FBI agent who was arrested Monday after holding a minister hostage in an attempt to lure his estranged wife to a church. Bennett's estranged wife, Marguerite, works as a supervisor of police officers at the Woodbridge campus.
Charlie T. Deane, Prince William County police chief, said the bomb at the Woodbridge campus could not have been detonated by someone simply opening the locker or touching it and did not have a timing device.
``The items and elements used are commonly available. It could be characterized as fairly basic and simple,'' he said.
Deane said the Woodbridge bomb likely had been put in the locker prior to Eugene Bennett's arrest.
Bennett, 41, is jailed without bond on charges that he abducted the pastor at his estranged wife's church on Sunday, threatening him with a gun and explosives, all in a ruse to get Marguerite Bennett to the Prince of Peace United Methodist Church. Bennett had the minister call his wife and ask her to come to the church.
Bennett, also a former FBI agent, went to the church but brought along a pistol and pepper spray. After arguing about custody of the couple's two young daughters, ages 7 and 9, Bennett fired a shot at her husband, but missed.
He fled and was later arrested at his house after a four-hour standoff.
Police said Bennett may have intended to kill his estranged wife at the church Sunday night. They would not comment on why Bennett might have placed the pipe bomb at the Woodbridge campus.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB