

'Collar bomb' victim Madeleine Pulver relieved after FBI arrests suspect

An Australian teenager who spent 10 hours with a fake bomb chained to her neck said Wednesday that she was relieved after the FBI arrested a suspect in Kentucky.
/ Source: staff and news service reports


Paul Douglas Peters is accused of breaking into a home in the wealthy Sydney suburb of Mosman and tethering the device to Madeleine Pulver as part of an elaborate extortion plot.

Pulver, 18, was studying at home when a masked man carrying a baseball bat broke in and attached the bomb-like device to her neck. The man left behind a note demanding money, along with an email address that appeared to refer to a novel about a ruthless businessman in 19th century Asia. Bomb technicians later found no explosives in the device.

A smiling Pulver told reporters that she was "very relieved" to hear of Peters' arrest.

"I'm glad it's all over," Pulver said.


Peters, a 50-year-old Australian investment banker who travels frequently to the U.S., was arrested by the FBI at his ex-wife's house in a well-heeled suburb near Louisville, Kentucky. On Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Dave Whalin ordered Peters jailed pending an extradition hearing set for Oct. 14 in Louisville.

Australian police plan to charge him with multiple offenses, including kidnapping and breaking and entering.

What ties Peters has to the wealthy Pulver family remain unclear, although federal court documents released Tuesday say he once worked for a company with links to the Pulvers. William Pulver, Madeleine's father, is CEO of Appen Butler Hill, a company that provides language and voice-recognition software and services.

'I still don't believe it'


Brent Peters last saw his brother in 2010, and said he appeared to be doing well.


Brent Peters told Australia's that the arrest was "a massive shock" to his brother's wife and three daughters.








He also reportedly told the girl the device had a microphone that allowed him to monitor her conversations.

'Plastic explosives'


The email address the attacker left is Dirk Struan is the main character in James Clavell's 1966 novel "Tai-Pan," about a bitter rivalry between powerful Hong Kong traders after the end of the First Opium War.


The email account was accessed the day of the attack at 4:09 p.m. from an IP address registered to a library in Kincumber, about 50 miles from the girl's Mosman home. The account was accessed twice more before 6 p.m. from an IP address registered to a video store a few miles from the library.


When authorities examined a memory stick that was left around Pulver's neck they were able to recover deleted files, one of which was written on a computer with the identification of "Paul P," according to a court document.

With that information and the footage of his vehicle, police searched for a matching car and found one registered to Peters. His driver's license photograph matched those of the individual in the security footage, it said.

One-way flight





