FBI: Collar Bomb, Body Not Linked

A man who police say helped a woman hide the body of her roommate in his freezer wrote a suicide note in which he proclaimed his innocence in the case of a pizza deliveryman who died when a bomb locked to his neck exploded, a person involved in the investigation said Saturday.

William Rothstein stated in the note that he had no role in Brian Wells' death on Aug. 28, the law enforcement source told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

FBI agents investigating Wells' death, which occurred after he robbed an Erie bank and the explosives around his neck detonated as the bomb squad was en route, said they had nothing to connect that case to the murder investigation involving Rothstein.

"We don't have any evidence linking the two (cases)," FBI agent Bob Rudge said Saturday.

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, 54, is charged with killing James D. Roden, 45, at the home they shared outside Erie in Summit Township. She has denied involvement in the murder and has implicated Rothstein, a longtime friend and her former boyfriend.

According to state police documents, Rothstein told authorities he was contemplating suicide on Sept. 20, the day Roden's body was found in the freezer, the Erie Times-News reported Saturday. The police documents do not describe the note's contents.

Wells' last pizza delivery on the day he died was to a television transmission tower on a small access road that runs by Rothstein's home. That apparently prompted Rothstein to mention the Wells case, the source told AP.

"He didn't want people, the police, to get hung up on the fact that the (Wells) crime scene was so close to his house," the source said. "It's a bizarre explanation, but it does make some sense."

Authorities are trying to determine whether Wells was a willing participant in the bank robbery or whether he was accosted during that delivery. Wells told police someone locked the bomb to him and he was forced to rob the bank.

Meanwhile, Rothstein has been cooperating with police in their investigation of Roden's death.

According to court documents, Rothstein said Diehl-Armstrong called him and told him she had found Roden dead and was worried that she would be blamed. Rothstein told police that he went to Diehl-Armstrong's home, wrapped Roden's body in a bedspread and a tarp then took it home, where he set up a pulley system to lift Roden's body into the freezer, according to police documents.

Diehl-Armstrong decided on Sept. 20 as the day to get rid of Roden's body and Rothstein said he drove her around to buy equipment to cut up and dispose of the body in an effort to delay the process. When they returned to his house, Rothstein told police he drove away and called 911, because he was alarmed that Diehl-Armstrong wanted to use an ice crusher to dismember the body.

Rothstein also told police he had agreed to help hide Roden's body, get rid of a shotgun and clean up her apartment for $2,000.

Rothstein is expected to be charged next week, said District Attorney Brad Foulk, who declined to disclose what the charges will be.

Rothstein's attorney, Gene Placidi, wouldn't comment on the alleged suicide note, but said Rothstein passed a lie detector test and isn't considered a suspect in Wells' death.

According to court records and law enforcement officials, Diehl-Armstrong, then known as Marjorie Diehl, was charged in 1984 with the shooting death of her boyfriend, Robert Thomas.

Saying she had been a victim of physical and sexual abuse, Diehl testified that she had to shoot Thomas before he killed her. She was acquitted of the homicide charge in 1988 and received probation for carrying a firearm without a license.