Father of suspect arrested in bombing

JEFFERSON, Ore. – A 57-year-old man living on a rented farm in the Willamette Valley was arrested on Tuesday, suspected of helping build a bomb that his son is accused of using to kill two police officers at a small bank last week.

Bruce Turnidge was arrested at a farm in this rural town about 13 miles southwest of Salem. He faces charges of conspiracy to manufacture and to possess an explosive device.

Police blocked off access to the house. During the afternoon, officers walked shoulder-to-shoulder in the farm’s fields, looking for evidence.

Law enforcement officers were searching the property “from front to back,” said Lt. Sheila Lorance of the Marion County sheriff’s office. “We’re searching all 750 acres.”

Earlier in the day, Joshua Turnidge, 32, of Salem made his first court appearance on charges of aggravated murder, among other counts, for the bombing last Friday at a West Coast Bank branch in Woodburn, another agricultural town in the Willamette Valley.

The arrest of Turnidge’s father is the latest twist in an investigation that has had many – and still has no public explanation of a motive.

Two police officers were killed and the Woodburn police chief was critically injured after the bomb – contained inside a green metal box – went off inside the bank.

Killed in the blast were State Police Senior Trooper William Hakim and Woodburn Capt. Tom Tennant. The Woodburn police chief, Scott Russell, lost his right leg from the knee down, and his left leg was mutilated, according to a probable cause statement released Tuesday.

The document states that Hakim – a bomb technician – decided to move the device into the bank because he believed it was fake.

The document also states that seven hours before the explosion, a man had called in a bomb threat to the adjacent Wells Fargo bank and told an employee that further instructions would be coming on a cell phone to be found next to a garbage can.

Police found a cell phone on some black bags, but there was no bomb.

The document also shows that investigators tracked down Joshua Turnidge by determining he had purchased the cell phone found in the trash bin.

Relatives say they find it hard to believe the two suspects could be involved in something like this.

“We cannot fathom what’s been going on in their minds, or what their motives would be. It just doesn’t make sense,” said Dale Turnidge, an 88-year-old cousin of Bruce Turnidge’s father.

He said generations of Turnidges have lived in the Willamette Valley. One of Joshua Turnidge’s uncles has been involved with Oregon Republican Party, he said. Another operates a youth camp.

Dale Turnidge said that over the years Bruce Turnidge had tried his hand at various kinds of jobs, such as farming and a backhoe operation he had with a brother.

“He just kinda got knocked around for a while,” he said.

The farm Bruce Turnidge was living on is in the same area as a farm that had been owned by the Turnidge family for years until it went bust, he said.

Joshua Turnidge also seems to have tried his hand at various ventures. His latest was collecting waste cooking oil from restaurants to be turned into biodiesel. He served in the Navy in the 1990s.

So far, police have not said what the motive for the bank bombing might have been. Bank officials said they had not received any previous threats.

At his court hearing in Salem, Joshua Turnidge showed no emotion. A stocky, bearded man with tattoos on his biceps, he got a court-appointed attorney and did not enter a plea. His next scheduled court date is Dec. 26. His father is to appear in court on Thursday.

Joshua Turnidge has a fiancee – identified in the court document as Jamie Lewis.

Her brother, Rory Lewis, was at Turnidge’s Tuesday court appearance to “show support” for him.

In response to reporters’ questions, Lewis said he thinks Turnidge was in Woodburn during the day last Friday to pick up vegetable oil for his business. But he said Turnidge was with his sister in Salem at the time of the explosion.

Asked whether Turnidge would have the expertise to make a bomb, Lewis said: “He’s into welding. He’s a real creative guy. But I honestly don’t think he would create some mass destruction device just to harm someone.”

Joshua Turnidge, like his father, has a record of violations of traffic and vehicle laws, but no record of serious offenses in Oregon.

“This is a shock to all of us,” Lewis said. “Josh is a very loving family guy. He went to church every Sunday. He wouldn’t harm a fly.”

Investigators found that the phone in the trash bin at the Wells Fargo bank, as well as another, were purchased at a Bend Wal-Mart on Nov. 26.

Airtime cards for the phones were purchased at a Salem Wal-Mart on Dec. 11, the day before the bombing. The two phones were activated on the morning of the bank bombing, the court document states.

Police obtained surveillance video showing “the subject who bought the two Tracfone airtime cards” walking out of the Wal-Mart to a blue early 1980s Chevrolet pickup truck. Investigators determined the truck is registered to Bruce Turnidge.

The man in the surveillance video was younger than Bruce Turnidge. Investigators looked at Joshua Turnidge’s DMV photograph and recognized him as the man in the surveillance video.

He was arrested Sunday at his Salem home.

The probable cause document released Tuesday gave some description of the bomb: It had a battery, wires and a toggle switch. But it does not say what the explosives consisted of, or how they were detonated.