they would harm anybody who they observed doing something that they didn t agree with. i was scared. you don t wanna be collateral damage. i do not. the coroner asked the bomb experts if it would be safe to move the body. would maybe a secondary booby trap device explode? ominous wires were still threaded through the collar. tom stankiewicz, the bomb squad commander, had examined it carefully even x-rayed it. he said it was safe. probably. it s hard to hide things from an x-ray machine. and we thoroughly x-rayed that device. but i i still can t s i m not inside of it. i can t see inside of it with my own eyes. and i was scared when we took mr. wells to the coroner s office cause we it was just myself, and our livery driver. and we were unprotected. it was just the two of us. don t hit any potholes. no, exactly. yeah.
you ve got a lot of wires. yeah, so you ve got a standard device. pipe bombs, mechanical timers. dennis murphy: 18:34:39; 28pipe bombs are over here. tom stankiewicz: yeah, and mechanical timers that that are the device. and then you have the distractions that are laid in there. the device was filled with things that were meant to confuse this cell phone is a toy. connected to nothing. and some of the warning labels were phony. but it was lethal, with compressed black powder sifted from shotgun shells. stankiewicz s model was built to the exact specifications of the original. down to the make and model of the household items used. this digital timer was designed to sound a warning beep beep in the seconds before the bomb exploded. yeah, so that s what you re hearing right there. gives me chills. makes me want to get away from this thing as i hear it. yeah, absolutely. the bomb was the work of someone with machine shop skills. and, clearly, a devious mind. the origina
i said, i know my brother s not a bank robber. but it looks like brian. and as she watched the standoff play out on tv, she saw exactly how he died. you d been watching the last moments of brian s life. right. my brother was sitting there, you know, handcuffed. police officers were pointing guns at him, you know, like he s a criminal. what did he need at that moment, jean? brian needed assistance. brian needed compassion. brian needed to be heard. but none of that happened. maybe what brian needed most was for bomb techs to defuse the device around his neck. the erie bomb squad didn t get that chance. coming from another part of town, they arrived just two minutes after the explosion. commander tom stankiewicz suited up into his bomb gear. what did you make of it? the collar still remained on his neck. so you could see that. and and we couldn t tell whether there were still any explosive devices inside what remained of that collar. had you ever seen anything
well, it was very painful. i think it was most painful for my mom because, like, she wanted to have a open-casket. they were more concerned with the integrity of the collar than they were his person. pain on pain on pain on pain, jean, huh? yep. he was decapitated like john the baptist. with the pieces of the device recovered, tom stankiewicz was able to go into his shop and craft an exact replica of the bomb 340 parts in all. it is a frightening model. can i lift this thing up? sure. how much does it weigh? oh, man it s 15 pounds. this is heavy. i can t imagine this it sure is, yeah having this around your neck. so open up the inside, tom. take me through what the components are here. yeah. so on the inside, you ve
so what was the decision that was made? we decided to do i guess, for lack of better description, a surgical decapitation so we could get the collar off safely and intact. so you took the victim s head off? yes. it was one of the hardest decisions i ve ever had to make both professionally and personally. after completing that grim procedure, coroner timon met with brian wells family and told them about it. they felt brian was being victimized again, even in death. how painful is that for you? well, it was very painful. i think it was most painful for my mom because, like, she wanted to have a open-casket. they were more concerned with the integrity of the collar than they were his person. pain on pain on pain on pain, jean, huh? yep. he was decapitated like john the baptist. with the pieces of the device recovered, tom stankiewicz was able to go into his shop and craft an exact replica of the bomb 340 parts in all. it is a frightening model.