Turned deadly mystery. The notes say we are following you. It seemed like someone playing a game. The whole plan was designed for him to die. Interviews heard here first. Zb zble. He was murdered. Ive held my silence for 15 years. Inside the riveting story datelines covered from the start. There is a frozen body. Its in the freezer in the garage. We have three different deaths. How are they related . Im thinking, wow, she could really be the mastermind of this. Evil and death and greed. Its not a script. Its not makebelieve. How horrible can you be . May they burn in hell. Reporter what a pretty, late summer afternoon it had been along the great lake. August 28th, 2003, a day that people of erie, pennsylvania, will long remember, not for its pleasant breezes but for that spasm of unexpected violence. Dateline was there. It all started with a pizza delivery. It ended two hours later in one of the most bizarre Crimes Police have ever witnessed. Reporter maybe you remember bits of it. A pizza delivery guy robbing a bank, claiming he had a ticking time bomb locked around his neck. The images are hard to forget and still painful to watch. Horrific, bizarre, almost like the mother of all, you know, whodunits. Reporter strange indeed. But on that day we didnt have a clue about all that still lay ahead. A few weeks after the bank heist, this happened. There is a frozen body. Its in the freezer in the garage. Reporter a 911 caller said there was a man dead in a freezer in his garage and a woman in his living room very much alive. Who is she to you, sir . Uh, i helped her do some stuff that i shouldnt do. Reporter that call was made by a huge guy in bib overalls who looked like an extra from the old show heehaw. But he was no dumb hayseed. He was the smartest guy in the room. He would become one of the leads, maybe the mastermind in a colorful cast of characters, people on the fringes of society. Lets just call them unconventional. All the broken toys of erie, p. A. , show up in one story. At the center of it all was marjorie diehlarmstrong. Marjorie, where do you even begin . She had danger written all over her. She did. She has a magnetic quality about her. You know, some people have described it as magnetically revolting. The amazing part for me is that these people all found each other with the same likemindedness of evil and death and greed. Reporter it started on a thursday, 1 30 in the afternoon. An order came into mama mias pizzeria. Two sausage and pepperoni pies for delivery. Driver brian wells scribbled down the address. It wasnt a home or even a business. The caller wanted the pizzas delivered to a cluster of tv station antennas and satellite dishes nestled in the woods. Deliver manuels headed out. About an hour after that, another call came in, this one to 911. This is an emergency. We have a bank robbery at pnc bank. Reporter fbi special agent jerry clark was in his office looking forward to a long labor day weekend. I was downtown and got notified that there was a bank robbery at 7200 peach street. Fbi is what you guys do. Fbi, thats what i do. I had been to hundreds in my career. So this one sounded different, though. Reporter security cameras showed just how different. The robber was brian wells, the delivery guy from mama mias. He handed the teller a note saying this is a bank robbery. I have a bomb, and i need 250,000 in cash. He had something underneath his shirt, but you really couldnt see exactly what it was. Reporter whatever the device was, it was attached around wells neck with something that looked like a giant handcuff. He was holding a bag in one hand, a cane in the other. At least it looked like a cane. Demeanor was calm. Swinging the cane and walking with the money very casually. Grabs a lollipop which they have on the counter. To feel comfortable enough to reach into the basket and pull out a lollipop actually surprised me. Wells strolled out with a bag of money but he might not have been so calm if he knew how fast Law Enforcement was responding. A guy just walked out with a, i dont know how much cash in a bag. State troopers were closing in. I got called that there was a bank robbery in progress. Reporter Pennsylvania StatePolice Crime Unit supervisor lamont king rolled out. Jerry clark of the fbi was on his way. So was the erie p. D. Bomb squad. Tv news live vans werent far behind. The pizza guy turned bank robber drove out of the mcdonalds parking lot next to the bank but didnt get far. Wells was intercepted just up the hill by troopers, only a few hundred yards from the bank itself. I had him get out of the vehicle, at which time they noticed the collar around his neck. Reporter the robber told them he was wearing a bomb. They werent about to doubt him. The troopers took precaution, handcuffed the individual, kneeled him down, and then they proceeded to take cover. Reporter fbi man jerry clark arrived moments later. I came screaming up peach, and i pulled exactly to the end of the lot and thought, oh, man, thats too close. So i immediately reversed, came around, and got into this parking lot. And hes talking to the officers . He is. Reporter wells identified himself, said he was a pizza delivery man. Can you call my boss . Reporter sitting on the pavement crosslegged and handcuffed, wells seemed more desperate than desperado. He pleaded for a cigarette and help. Can you at least take these freakin handcuffs off . Reporter and then he told his story, his words. Some black men had accosted him, locked the fiendish collar around his neck and activated the bomb. The conversations back and forth, and went on for quite a while. Reporter police didnt know what to make of the man with the bomb, but they knew he was dangerous and kept a safe distance. It was a stalemate with no easy way out. Wells sat on the pavement for ten minutes, then 20, all the way, tick, tick. The bomb squad was getting close, but traffic by now was hopelessly snarled. Theyd be there in a few minutes. Nobody knew if that would be time enough. Coming up its gonna go off. Hes pleading can you get this thing off me . A race against the clock. Had you ever seen anything like it . Like that . No. And what they would see as the case unfolded would be darker than any of them imagined. I just was overwhelmed by this dark feeling. Everybody was lying and framing me, okay . If shes at the center of this, what does this mean . Reporter when dateline continues. With advil, you have power over pain, so the whole world looks different. The unbeatable strength of advil. What pain . Ladies, my friends and i are having a debate. I have a back rash. Alright. Whoa, mara. I laugh like this. [ laughs obnoxiously ] its just not my scene. I couldnt help but over do you like insurance . I love insurance. 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So you probably know making walgreens your preferred pharmacy means up to 5 off on copays and 100 rewards points on prescriptions. Because youre smart like that. Save smartly on med d. Walgreens. Trusted since 1901. When you drink or eat something thats acidic everyone is at risk for enamel loss. It sucks the minerals out of the tooths surface. Pronamel is formulated to help deliver minerals to the tooths surface to help reharden and strengthen your enamel. We interrupt this program. Suspected bank robber who had been cornered by police. Reporter 46yearold brian wells started the day as a pizza delivery driver. Then he robbed a bank. Now he was a ticking time bomb. Well, maybe if you get the keys reporter the device was locked around his neck like a handcuff, but wells didnt have a key, and he said the bombs timer was ticking down. Wells was on the ground, hands cuffed hundred his back, and surrounded. Police with guns drawn. Tv news crews getting it all. How close can you zoom in with that . Were live. I need you to zoom in. Reporter fbi agent jerry clark was just 20 feet from wells. The man people described as calm when he robbed the bank seemed increasingly anxious. Hes pleading, can you get this thing off me . Its gonna go off. Im not lying. Reporter no one dared approach. The standoff lasted 30 excruciating minutes, and then something happened. You hear a countdown beep almost like a bond movie or something. Very faintly, you know, a beep, beep, beep. A digital countdown timer. Reporter lamont king heard the beeping too. He grabbed a pair of binoculars and zoomed in on wells. Im listening to him, and i got him pretty much zoomed in. Then i hear another beep. Once i heard the second beep, he got agitated. Reporter the standoff had now lasted 31 minutes. The clock hit 3 18. The device locked around brian wells neck exploded. Ill never forget it. Mr. Wells fell back, and i watched his chest, and the air went out but never came back, and i thought, ah, this is a fatal situation. And debris is sailing through the air . You could feel the percussion from the device. I felt a couple pieces hit right down around here. The basic image that sticks in my mind is the eyes going back to the head. Then he just went down. Reporter brian wells died moments after the explosion. The bomb crushed his chest and lacerated his heart. It was a horrifying scene, all of it captured by news cameras. Later that night, brians sister was relaxing at home, completely unaware. I turned on the news. Somebody robbed a bank. And i looked, and i was like, theres my brother, brian. Whats he doing there, sitting there . Sitting on the road . Sitting on the road. Then i said to the kids, does that look like brian, uncle brian . They said yeah. Reporter it seemed impossible, couldnt be true. Jean turned to her husband. He says, jean, your brothers not a bank robber. I said, i know my brotherss not a bank robber, but it looks like brian. Reporter as she watched the standoff play out on tv, she saw exactly how he died. Youd been watching the last moments of brians life. Right. My brother was sitting there, you know, handcuffed. Police officers were pointing guns at him, you know, like hes 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. Reporter maybe what brian needed most was for bomb teches to defuse the device around his neck. The erie bomb squad didnt get that chance. Coming from another part of town, they arrived just two minutes after the explosion. The commander 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 we couldnt tell whether there was still any explosive devices inside what remained of that collar. Had you ever seen anything like it . Like that . No. Really nobody in the United States had seen anything like that. Reporter that included jerry clark, with 20 years of Law Enforcement experience under his belt. He was joined at the scene by his fbi supervisor. After both of us initially said, oh, my god, i cant believe what we saw. And i said, i got to have this case. And he said, its yours. Lets go. Reporter from the first moments, every move agent clark made would be under intense scrutiny. It was a media frenzy. I mean live satellite dishes, local, national, international news. It was a big event. Reporter one of the people watching the coverage was trey borzelali. On the day brian wells died, trey was a couple hours away in buffalo, settling his mothers estate. It was a bitter two weeks in Buffalo Packing her things. I was wrapped up, done, reached out to some friends to have a drink and say goodbye. Trey was saying goodbye to his hometown and heading back to his new life in new york city, where he was trying to become a documentary filmmaker. All he needed was a good story. What do you think the ingredients are for the kind of thing you want to see and want to make . It had to be something that was shocking, that really pulled you in. Reporter while raising a farewell glass with friends, trey noticed the coverage of the bank robbery in erie. The newscast came over the tv in the corner of the bar, and i was hooked. It seemed like it had all the pieces right from the start. Had you found your white whale . Absolutely. I thought, wow, how desperate did that man have to be. Reporter back in erie, brian wells big sister, barbara, was also thinking about how desperate her brother looked in his last moments. That fit her belief that brian was a victim. Nothing else made sense for the brother she loved. Brian was a fun person, a quiet person, a humble person. Reporter brian was one of eight children, an easygoing guy. He liked puzzles and Scavenger Hunts, watched action movies with his mom. It was a simple life and it suited him just fine. He never wanted to be in the spotlight. If he could even imagine what had happened to him the last several minutes of his life, hes said, no, no, thats not me. Reporter younger sister jean said brians last hour was not spent as a criminal but as a hostage of the real bank robbers, the people who accosted him, locked the collar around his neck, and activated the bomb. It was exactly as brian said. He delivered pizzas, and these guys strapped this thing on him. Yes. Reporter jerry clark heard brian wells say that with his own ears. Im not lying. Reporter it sounded like a declaration of innocence by a man who seemed to know he was about to die. But clark wasnt ruling anything in or out. For him, it was just one piece in an already strange and complicated puzzle. Coming up could someone have unlocked the bomb in time . A Scavenger Hunt to find the key. Each site was to have notes on where to go next. Reporter and another hunt begins for a suspect. They ran up on me like just like gangbusters, like i was Charles Manson or somebody. Reporter when dateline continues. These days you need faster internet that does all you expect and way more. Thats xfinity xfi. Get powerful wifi coverage that leaves no room behind with xfi pods. And now xfi advanced security is free with the xfi gateway, giving you an added layer of network protection, so every device thats connected is protected. Thats a 72 a year value. No one else offers this. Faster speed, coverage, and free advanced security at an unbeatable value with xfinity xfi. Can your internet do that . Reporter it was a grotesque scene and maybe still potentially lethal. When the bomb squad gave the allclear, fbi agent jerry clark headed for brian wells car, a chevrolet geo. When you look at the car, i guess thats an important thing, right . Yes, absolutely. Reporter the car held one peculiar thing, the cane brian wells twirled inside the bank was there. But it wasnt a simple cane. It was a shotgun that had been fabricated to look like a cane, and it was loaded. Clark kept looking. You final td the money . Find the money. In the bank, wells demanded 250,000 from the teller. The bag found in the car had way less than that. It turned out brian wells lost his life over 8,702. Investigators also recovered handwritten notes with detailed, complicated instructions apparently written for wells on how to carry out the robbery. The notes involved in this case were voluminous. There were nine total pages of notes. Reporter the notes referred to wells as a hostage, and they were peppered with dire warnings like bomb has tripwires. Forcing or tampering will detonate. And we are following you. If you delay, disobey or alert anyone, you will die. The collar bomb locked around wells neck had four keyholes. The notes also included maps and instructions directing wells to a location where hed find a key and more instructions on where to find another key and then another, until finally hed be free of the bomb. An illustrated manuscript of tre treachery. I get the sense theres a Scavenger Hunt going on and if he follows the notes in a timely manner, he can go from point a to b to c to d and come up with the holy grail, which is the key to unlock this thing. Thats basically what it was. It was a Scavenger Hunt, and each site was to have notes on where to go next and a key to one of the four keyholes that held the device around his neck. Reporter jerry clark had never seen anything like it. No one had. Investigators decided to retrace wells steps. It looked as though he was following the instructions to the letter. Jerry, im looking over here. I see an urgent care business, but in 2003, that was the bank, huh . Yes, that was the pnc bank. Mr. Wells robs the bank and proceeds down keystone drive here, turns right into where were standing. And this is the start of this crazy Scavenger Hunt, huh . This is point a. What mr. Wells is to do at this location is to go into this flowerbed, turn over a rock or stone that was in the flower bed and retrieve a note. Reporter the note under the rock directed wells to his next destination, but he never made it. Law enforcement makes an entry here, does a felony car stop, and basically placed mr. Wells under arrest right here. So is this the standoff, the famous picture we see . This is it right here. Reporter wells Scavenger Hunt and his life ended here. Less than an hour after the explosion, lamont king of the state police took the notes and followed the rest of the directions exactly as written. We went down to the first site on interchange road. He was supposed to find a coffee jar and a couple other things, which we found. You know, everything we found, we bagged for evidence. Reporter king made all the stops while another trooper timed the trip. It took well over an hour, and that was a Crucial Point because the bombs timing device turned out to be a common 60minute kitchen timer. Would you have had enough time to make all of these rounds on the Scavenger Hunt and recover the key and save your life . You would have never had the time. So that indicated to us that that device was never meant to come off. Plus there were no keys found at any of the sites. There never was a key. That whole plan was not designed for him to live. It was a very cruel death, very cruel death. Reporter the thought was c