A Bowl, A Battery & A Bomb: The Colleyville Divorce Plot | Travis Riddle | Signal 51 Chronicles

This is the Signal 51Chronicles. I'm John Henry. To my left here is my compadre, Jake White, retired sergeant of the fourth Police Department and a subject matter expert.

No, I'm not a let you to be a subject. I was talking about the importance of said that We we'll get come to you from an undisclosed location in Fort Worth, Texas, as part of the Sunset Lounge DFW. We do true crime here.

We peel back the onion on the macabre. I get it. On the other side of us is our producer, Ashley, the Hood County Hellcat.

The Hood County Hellcat. Sorry, don't have a mic today. Raising all kinds of hail down there.

Whose whereabouts on many nights in question remain unaccounted for. Yep. Where would we be without Ashley?

We would be right now probably watching some games because we would not be doing this. Nursing hangovers. Uh-huh, no.

Oh yeah. You would be, well you are. Yeah, well, you know.

You like Coke Zero as much as I like Coke Zero? Not as much. I mean, you go out of your way for them.

Do. Won't go out of my way for them. I will consume one when the time is present, I suppose.

I was talking to my sister yesterday. Hates them? Drinking Diet Coke.

Like, what? Yeah. There's no point in that anymore.

None, but people still love it apparently. Yeah. All right, well let's get to the show.

We've got a very special guest on tap for your listening and viewing pleasure. Jake, tell us who this is. So today we've got retired ATF special agent in charge.

Sounds important. Yes. A boss.

A boss. All right. Yes.

Retired ATF special agent in charge of the St. Paul, Minnesota Field Division. Nothing much going on up there in the last couple of years.

No. Yeah, it's been pretty quiet up there in St. Paul, Minneapolis area.

I don't think so. So we'll you a background on who we got. All right.

So Travis started with ATF in 2005 right here in Fort Worth, Texas. Yes. Special agent down here.

Now, you've heard my rants. Well, you've heard a lot of my rants. I've heard a lot of hot sports opinions.

I have a lot. Jake White. I have a lot.

One of my biggest rants is having the subject. It's important to be a subject matter expert. Yeah, a 100%.

Yeah, a 100%. And one thing that in my personal opinion, one of my hot sports opinions is that the bosses, the administrators, the command staff, whatever the gold badge people, if you will. Yeah.

Very few of them are what I would call a subject matter expert. Most of This this is hot. Oh, yeah.

This is hot. Like, you know, it... Law enforcement's one of the...

I think, I could be wrong. I've only had, you know, two careers in my lifetime. Mhmm.

But law enforcement's one of those things where the bosses don't always know what steps to take. Yeah. Okay?

So as we're going through this, we're going to intro a story. But as we're going through this, one thing I thought of was we've actually got a guy on that was a a big boss. Yeah.

Andy knew what the hell he was doing. Oh, wow. Wow.

We found we found a unicorn. Yeah. I'll give you all.

We can we can safely describe it as a unicorn. All right. So Travis started here in Fort Worth special agent.

We were partners. Oh, yeah? Yes.

We I did not help on the case we're going to cover, but we have a few others. We might dive into a few of those. After his time in Fort Worth, he promoted to a resident agent in charge in Cheyenne, Wyoming Mhmm.

Iraq. Everything has the acronyms. Right.

Hangs out up there in the Tundra Of Cheyenne. Yeah. I just picture it dusty and windy up there.

Oh, 100%. And then snowy too. Big bunch of cowboys.

Yeah, bunch of cowboys Promote- Dirty snow. Dirty snow. Dirty snow promotes out of Cheyenne and goes to what some would could say in any law enforcement agency, the most popular assignment, ATF Internal Affairs.

Oh. Guarantee you there's some juicy stories there. I don't know if we'll get into those.

I'd kinda, you know, a lot of those are not necessarily things we'd talk about. Right around 2020 sometime, I might have my time off just a little bit. He promotes to assistant special agent in charge or as we would call it an ASAC in the...

Everybody laughs. Travis, if I'm not wrong, only one one federal agency doesn't use the SAC acronym. Correct?

I I think the s... FBI actually says the whole thing Correct. Just because there's so many things that can come from that.

Yeah. No. Well, Yeah.

They'll use the SAC. SAC. But then they have...

Some of the larger cities will have multiple SACs under like a one step up in supervision. And for whatever reason, they don't have any problem calling those ADCs. Okay.

So anyway, he he was an ASAC? ASAC in Phoenix. ASAC in Phoenix.

Phoenix Field Division. Large area. Big Yeah.

Field And in '20... Around 2024, he becomes the special agent in charge. Sack, the top dog, the sack, big boss of the St.

Paul Field Division. All right. Now, when I say St.

Paul, we're not talking about just Minneapolis, St. Paul. We've got all of Minnesota.

That's just where they're based. Yeah, just where they're based. Would Five states, right?

Somewhere in that ballpark that you had coverage over. I would... Somewhere...

No. It was Wisconsin, Minnesota, and both both the Dakotas. Okay.

He probably never ran into our Dakota buddy. If he did, man. He got a treat.

He would have a treat if he did. We have a friend that lives in North Dakota, and he is I think he's probably one of the most proud North Dakotans. Oh, you betcha.

Oh, yeah. He sounds like he's... Yeah, he is.

He's Fargo. Oh, oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. He actually lives in Fargo.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

He sounds just like. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

You betcha. So anyway, that's our background. That's our introduction.

So, Travis, thanks for being here. Mr. Travis Riddle.

Mr. Travis Riddle, now retired. Retired six months ago, somewhere in that ballpark.

Right. We can all dream. Yes.

We all never get there. It's okay. Anyway, Travis, thanks for coming on.

Why don't we start, though, kind of give us a background? We gave your ATF lineage timeline. What was up before all that?

Where'd you grow up at? Well, well, I I grew up in the Metroplex. K.

So I didn't spend my entire youth there. But if I remember correctly, we moved we moved there in '78, and I didn't leave the Metroplex until I went to college. So I went to college out in Lubbock and loved it so much that I became a cop in Lubbock.

And then ATF hired me and decided that it was a conflict of interest to keep me in Lubbock, so they punished me and made me go to Fort Worth, which basically sent me back home. So so... Yeah.

It's... So vast majority of my adult life has been has been in in Texas outside of federal service. And, of course, you know, in 2013, I left Texas, and, unfortunately I have not been back since.

God. Yeah. It has been that long ago.

Wow. Yeah. Thirteen years ago.

Well. Well, now you have the freedom to do whatever you want. Speed's up when you get old.

Yeah, no, it does. Boy, I tell you that without... And that's what we're doing now.

We're just breathing and figuring out where we want to lay roots and actually lay some roots. All right. There's a wide array of places you can land.

Yeah. Especially having living in all those other places. Kind of a cool experience, I think.

So, okay. So Lubbock PD, how long are you? Five, six years there?

How long were you caught by the time? I got hired in 'ninety nine. Yeah, it was just about six years.

Okay. Do you study criminal justice at tech, I'm assuming, or you went to school, no. Tech didn't have criminal justice at the time.

So when I started college, was I got about I think right around my junior year, I was pre med. I was going to be a doctor. Oh, wow.

And then over the summers, during the summers, I would work in hospitals in various capacities because my mom was a nurse recruiter. So it got me into like, I could go work in the ORs, actually the doctors were nice enough let me watch and observe and ask questions while they're doing these procedures. And I think after about the second summer, I was like, this is just rinse and repeat.

This seems so repetitive. I don't think I want to do this. And for whatever reason, I thought it was going be a good idea to be a cop.

And so it was probably right before my junior year, switched over to Weyland Baptist. And that's where I ended up graduating. Okay.

The famous basketball team, women's basketball team at Wayland Baptist. Really? Yeah.

This does not surprise me that you knew that. He knows so many just Stupid things. Facts of...

Man, so many random facts. So, okay. So first one we're gonna kick off, obviously we tell crime stories on this show.

And, John, this is one that we have done several years ago, but we just did it through our lens, not through the investigator lens. So I'm gonna dive into Let's this real do it. We're going Sunday morning, May second, two thousand and ten.

Very normal day for a lady named Jeanette Bruges. She lived in that quiet little suburb tucked away right in the middle of DFW, Colleyville. Colleyville, Texas.

Fluent suburb, I think. Yes. You could call it that.

Called a lot of things. Population growing like everything. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Was a town...

It's got a population of about 26,000 people. Jeanette resided at a home in the one thousand block of Dogwood Court. So on this Sunday, she had planned to go to church, return home for lunch, just have a lazy Sunday afternoon.

What you've perfected. Sometimes. So it's May.

Summer is around the corner. The high that day expected to reach 97 degrees. Warm.

Yeah, pretty warm. I'm glad that we're out of that right now. Nothing seemed out of place on this day for Jeanette.

Not even a package from FedEx that arrived early enough that it was on her front porch at 8AM. Jeanette, like, probably well, you're probably not a package guy. I don't see you perusing the Amazon website just doing what everybody else does.

Buy, buy, buy. No. Come home, you got six Amazon packages on your door.

Spending money scares me to death. Yes. I know I can.

I know this. So very... All all very normal.

Everything just completely run of the mill Saturday. Jeanette, in those days, had routinely entered sweepstakes, if you remember those, and thought nothing suspicious about the package. She brought it inside and continued to get ready for church and worship on that Christian Sabbath.

Yeah. Yeah. Christian Sabbath.

Yeah. When she returned home from church at around eleven, that's when things get weird. That's why we're here after all.

Right? We're not telling people We do weird that you need to correct. Yeah, we're not just here telling run of the mill.

She went to church, came home, had lunch and Lazy Sunday stories. Otherwise I could just call you on a Sunday and get a good idea of what that is. Well, because things get weird and many times very stupid, in particular during divorce proceedings, people lose their minds.

As we've heard many of times in these stories. Yeah, they do. After returning from church, Jeanette took to satisfying her curiosity about that package that was on the porch.

She went to the brown FedEx box, which was approximately two feet by two feet by three feet, decent sized package. She began to cut through the adhesive tape that locked down the flaps. Those extensions, the side walls that closed the box.

Yeah. Inside, she found that the box contained those typical packing peanuts and two wooden salad bowls, closed together with masking tape. I would think at this point things are starting to get a little weird like, did Dead Bath and Beyond really send it to me like this?

Did I really win this in a sweepstakes? She separates the bowls, and that's where it gets for real weird. What is it?

It was a six volt lantern battery wired to a large bag of black and gray powder inside the bowls. What in the hell is going on here? Concerned and seeking answers, or perhaps the consolation of a friend, I have a feeling too, if you had that package, you would probably call me first.

Yeah. And then I would say you probably need to call the cops. Jeanette, you know, most people live in a world of innocence.

Sure. They have no idea how badly things can turn. Yeah.

No. Well, she picks those salad bowls up and carries it over to the neighbor's house. Alright.

Jeanette, the neighbor said, that looks like a bomb. Now alarmed and panicked, Jeanette called 911. She was quoted as saying, I opened it, and there was a battery in it.

She breathlessly told the call taker. My neighbor said it looks like a homemade bomb, end quote. So today, the reason we have Travis on Yep.

This is not an easy case to solve. Right? It's very serious.

Has very serious implications. Certainly. This investigation, though, was a mighty fine piece of police work.

Alright. So... Alright.

So Travis, we're getting into it. We're diving into it right now. So...

And let me interrupt right quick. The bomb did not go off. The bomb did not go off.

No one was, no one was injured. No. Okay.

We can, we'll probably hear why it didn't go. Okay, let's go. So like I said, we got Travis here.

Travis, we're diving into it. Was it a lazy Sunday afternoon for you that day up until your phone rang? Up to that point.

Yeah. Up to that point. Like many times, as you're familiar with, oftentimes, you know, you're doing whatever you're doing and then your phone's ringing and then you're, you know, going to wherever the phone call is telling you to go.

So, you know, for that Sunday, yes, it was lazy up to that point, but not surprising that I got a telephone call to to go out and deploy. Okay. So when you got there, at that point, there was probably...

Look. Colleyville, like... Kinda like we touched on.

Colleyville was a small town. They don't have the resources of the big cities. They don't have bomb squads, and they probably have some kind of regional element to it.

But when you actually get a real bomb, you have to call people who really know how to investigate bombs. And that's obviously one function that the ATF had. I mean, if the city of Fort Worth, if you guys got a...

This case in Fort Worth, you'd be calling these guys. Fort Worth has their own arson and bomb squad. Okay.

But they're supplemented with ATF and maybe some other federal partners. Okay. So you get there.

What, what do you remember when you get there? So, you know, of course, you know, Collierville PD is there. And and really, but but before we get too far into this story, I'm gonna tell this story from my perspective.

I do not, I do not wanna diminish the, the investigative contributions from Colleyville PD. They did an absolutely phenomenal job, and I don't want anybody listening to this to think that this was a one man show who's, you know, who who solved everything. This was a group effort.

This is just my perspective of what was going on. So I just wanted to lay that out there first because the detectives that were on that case were were bright. Jake's always to to disparaging get out there.

Small town... With the small town units. No.

I'm not. Sorry, Travis. Go ahead.

Well, I mean, sometimes sometimes it's hit and miss with the smaller towns. They just don't have the same resources. But in in this case, they had two phenomenal detectives.

Be a little more understanding. So when I get there... Yeah.

The the regional bomb squads there, they had already disrupted the the device. And when I say disrupted, there's various techniques they use to disrupt. And in this case, they used a water cannon, just basically...

Well, basically just blows up the bomb with the hopes of not detonate it. And, of course, that's their that's their expertise. So, of course, they did not detonate, but it did send pieces everywhere, which at that point, that's when it became a a treasure hunt of trying to recover evidence.

Because the bomb squad's interest is is making sure everyone's safe and the thing doesn't go boom, oftentimes, the interest is not preserving evidence. That... That's a secondary.

If they can, they can. And if they can't, they can't. But in this case, that was a long afternoon of searching to try to get all the pieces together for the device.

Because unlike, you know, what people may perceive in movies or something like that, when a bomb explodes, the pieces don't disappear. They may become smaller. They may fly incredible distances, but they just, I mean, they just don't vaporize.

And so oftentimes, if you do a thorough enough job, you can find all the pieces and reconstruct the device based on the evidence that you recovered. And that is what we did that day with the evidence recovery and also with the pre disruption photographs that were taken. So by the time you got there, they had already hit it with the water cannon?

Or were you there when they did that? You just, at that point, you just saw pictures Right. Of what it looked Well, that was after the fact.

I didn't get the pictures probably until, like, the next day. Okay. Which, I mean, it would have been beneficial, but we're also talking 2010, and we're right there on the edge of digital photography.

So not to date anybody on this program, but, you know. So the pictures weren't readily available when I got there at the scene. Okay.

So what so they they hit it with the water cannon, render it safe in essence. Where do you start? What do you start with at this point?

Like, where where... How do you know where to go figure Well, this thing talking to the to do the regional, bomb squad and also our, our EEOs, our explosives enforcement officers, were out there too. You know Johnny and Andy.

Yep. They were out there. And so they gave us a good idea based on the water charge that was used to disrupt the device, what would be a safe radius, basically, to lay out our grid to search.

And so once that was established, you get everything taped off, and then it's just meticulously going through because we're talking more in people's yards, and we're not talking... It's like, you know, this sterile environment. So you're looking in gutters, you're looking on top of things, you're looking, you know, the grass.

So, yeah, that was that was pretty much the rest of the daylight hours was just trying to recover the evidence from the scene. Okay. So day one's probably...

I mean, at day one, your your first day, I mean, you're just gathering all the facts that you possibly can. I would assume... Is that when you guys first talked to Jeanette or what was kind of the timeline as far as putting this thing, putting it together, like trying to narrow down a possible suspect?

Yeah. You know, of course, Jeanette was interviewed at, you know, the same time. You know, and at that point, she relayed, you know, some of the difficulties she'd been having with some divorce proceedings.

And, you know, as as, you know, many cases, as y'all have discussed or if if you watch, you know, your your TV shows all the time, lots of times in any type of offense like that, you know, a family member is always gonna be the the first thing that you're gonna look at. So in this case, you know, we started with the obvious, which was the ex husband. And so that same day, we went to go try to interview him.

And of course, he denied any knowledge or anything like that. And so with nothing really strong to go on that first day, you know, the evidence collected, we have the interview with Jeanette, we had the interview with the ex husband. At that point, it was, let's circle back and let's start taking a look at what we have and see if we can kinda kinda put some pieces together, literally put some pieces together.

Yeah. Did you guys go through that painstaking process of trying to get it put back together the best you could after it was detonated? Yeah.

So... Yeah. Much as what you described, you know, it was it was two it was two wooden bowls.

So one bowl did not survive the encounter. So it was in... Yeah.

It was in lots and lots of pieces. But one bowl, for all intents and purposes, really didn't sustain a lot of damage during the disruption. And so, you know, they gave us something to examine.

You know, the smokeless powder, you know, the plastic bags, the battery. Inside the smokeless powder were nine millimeter projectiles. There were automobile light bulbs.

I mean, all that stuff was recovered. And so taking the items that were recovered and then looking at the pre disruption pictures, we've got a really good idea of how this device was supposed to function. And so, you know, the way this was supposed to work is when the top ball was lifted, this device was on what they call a loop switch.

And so you have you've got a battery that has current, and it was tied to a wire. And then on top of the bowl was another wire, and they're tied together. So when the bowl is closed, the wires really aren't touching.

And then when the bowl is opened, it completes the circuit, which sends the other wire down, which was embedded into the smokeless powder, which was supposed to detonate the device, but it did not work. Well, we got the loop system, so we got that under... Basically, was meant to detonate when the top bowl or bottom bowl, when the bowls were separated.

Yeah. Would you consider this a rudimentary device or more sophisticated? I would call it rudimentary because the design of the device was, I guess, basically obtained through publications.

Gotcha. So at the time, if you think about the '80s and '90s, there were many publications that would teach you how to make napalm or bombs or whatever, you know, mischief you would like to get into. So this device was not an exact copy, but a very similar copy of something that was out of one of those books.

Is that... Okay. So so we're still same day.

You talked to Jeanette. She tells you about the divorce issues, I suppose. Then you go talk to the ex husband, David.

Was he local in Dallas Fort Worth? Yes. Did you guys go to his Yeah, was, if I...

Yeah. We went to his house. Actually, I think it was another group of ATF agents went to his house.

I didn't speak to him that day. I was still working at the scene. And so, yeah, they were living in separate residences at that time because that divorce had been fairly prolonged.

And so, yeah, they spoke to him that day at his house. Did anything stand out to him? I mean, you know, I mean, we've all been, you know, anybody in law enforcement, you've been there where you're talking to a guy and quickly, you know, okay, something's up.

The guy's nervous. Way he's meaner, dodging questions. Anything stand out when the group of agents that went up there and talked to him?

I mean, standing out, I mean, think about the history of this divorce. And so this divorce had been going on for years. It had been very contentious.

It was my understanding that they were fairly affluent. So there's lots at stake here. For most people, if someone was to knock on your door and say, Hey, by the way, someone tried to kill your soon to be ex wife, there might be some degree of disbelief and maybe concern, but I don't think any of that was demonstrated.

But as far as anything that would just sit there and say, Yeah, we're definitely on the right direction, there was nothing that night. And that was the important of this case is, we always have this first, you know, maybe educated guess on where we should go. But without anything to go on that night, you know, other than what we had, you know, that that's kinda put to the side until the evidence points us in the direction that we need to go.

So that pointing in the right direction looks like probably on or about May 4. So a couple of days later, you or somebody else you're working with, you begin to closely examine the pictures of the device. And it was either you or maybe the Colleyville detective that notices, the markings B Smith.

So Bruce Smith, Bill Smith, whatever, engraved on the bowl. That kind of, I guess, turned you guys onto, okay, now we got to start looking where or who sells these bowls, right? Walk us through that.

How did that come Right. That was really that was I mean, even though this case has only been going on very shortly, we'll be talking two days, Jake. Yeah.

That was the catalyst that got the momentum going in the direction we needed to go. And it was Colleyville PD who discovered that mark. And so what we did at that point was basically start trying to track down what is B.

Smith, who manufactures it. So as we're working down that trail, we finally get to their corporate. And of course, they were extremely cooperative.

They answered everything that we asked them. The main question is, where are these bowls distributed at? Who do you sell these bowls to?

And they're like, well, they're only made for Bed Bath and Beyond. We don't make them for anybody else. So that gave us the next step, which was to contact Bed Bath and Beyond.

It was a little bit disappointing when they were contacted because the question is, is how long do you retain your sales records and your video? And so we had a very short window to hope that anything that we may obtain is still going to be actually retained. And so the simple question was, is how many times in this window that you retain your records have you sold two of these bowls at the same time?

And their answer was once. And I was like, okay. And where was that at?

And of course it was Bed Bath and Beyond that was in the same vicinity in that kind of that little Colleyville, Bedford, area. So that gave us the next step, which was to actually go to the store and ask to view their surveillance video for for that day, for that... For the purchase that their corporate gave us.

And I mean, the time, Bed Bath and Beyond was huge. They're they're everywhere. Yeah.

I think at the time, they had more than a thousand stores in The US. So it's kind of crazy that, you know, one, you have a detective just literally combing through pictures, sees a marking, B Smith. Then they track down, okay, who makes this B Smith Bowl?

They find that. Hey, we make those just for Bed Bath and Beyond. I mean, at that point, you're still a needle in a haystack.

Right? Like, how the hell... Where are we gonna...

I mean, because it's FedEx, so who knows where it came from? But two two of them. I mean, only one in the in the...

That retention period had sold two at the same time. So that... Okay.

So it it late... Or you guys narrow it down to a location somewhere in DFW, Bed Bath and Beyond in DFW. What what do you guys do next?

So we went up to the store, talked to the manager, just kind of explained why we were there and hoping they would help us. They've been over backwards for us. So they set us up in one of their little offices and gave us access to the historical surveillance footage, at least as far back as they could go.

Fortunately for us, corporate was able to give us a transaction date for those two bowls. So it was very easy for us to just ask the store, this is really the only thing. We don't need to look at anything else.

We just need to look at this date, maybe an hour before, maybe an hour after this transaction. Let's just see what's what. And so we're reviewing the video.

And lo and behold, David's making that purchase. He's... He he bought two of those bowls.

He also bought, like, one of those little metal kitchen trash cans that you step on, the lid, you know, pops up. So, yeah, we we had all that on video. And then based on the video, that's where we were able to obtain a federal search warrant.

You remember, like how far before Jeanette got the package, when did he buy those? Do you remember? Bad, I do not remember.

But, I mean, we're talking in May. And if I remember correctly, think Bed Bath... And once again, it's been a hot minute.

I think Bed Bath and Beyond only retained ninety days. Ninety days. You know, I would, yeah, I think that's what their retention period was.

I could be completely wrong. Like I said, I've slept since then, But it was not it was not a long... It was not a a big window we had.

So I would... Maybe he bought those around the first of the year, maybe February, somewhere in there. I don't...

That'd be my best guess. Okay. So now you guys have him linked to the Bulls, the same type of Bulls.

Did you not... Did you guys know anything about his his background? I mean, was he...

If I'm not mistaken, maybe he was into the whole gun world. Does that sound right? Yep.

Yeah. When we talked to Jeanette, he was big into firearms, which lots of people are. He was an avid reloader, and this is coming from his wife.

So those kinds of things, the things that we saw that were in the device would be consistent with somebody who would reload. I mean, you have smokeless powder, you have nine millimeter projectiles. And so some of those things are starting to tie together now that we have who we feel is an extremely strong suspect.

Okay. So you got... So once once you guys get that, looks like search warrants signed and executed on May 5.

I think given the background information you guys had, I would assume ATF SRT executes the search warrant. You're very standard, you know, that you see on, oh, well on Instagram and all that now where they pull up in the bearcats and are setting off flash bangs and... Oh yeah.

So they're taking it serious. Yeah. Right?

I mean, you've got a guy, one, who's suspected of mailing a freaking bomb to his ex wife and two, a guy that is into the gun world. Right? Reloading ammo and described as a marksman.

So a little bit on the dangerous side to have your, you know, just small team of agents go knock on the door. Right. Right.

You got to I mean, you got to be safe doing it. So they ATF SRT executes the warrant on that day. You're there.

When you guys go into the house, the house was on... It's in North Fort Worth on... 5200 Block Of Salago Drive or Salago Drive.

What'd you guys find when you went into that house? So, know, just to kind of close the loop on the execution of the warrant, we roused David out of the house. So when the warrant was executed, he wasn't inside.

We were just trying to make sure that not only was our team safe, but also that David would be safe. Can you We didn't think wouldn't get anybody A lot of people don't understand what's going on like this. So when they went in, they were mostly concerned with devices that could have possibly been laying around.

We didn't know really what he was into at that point. So when we go in, it's a normal middle class house. It was clean.

It was a nice residence. But as we start systematically going through the residence, you start finding some extremely interesting things. The reloading equipment that was that was located.

Of course, I mean, smokeless powder was with it. The nine millimeter projectiles were with it. Real quick.

You know, you go in... We went into the garage, you know? Yeah.

Going back real quick. Oh, I remember. I just pulled it up.

I remember this. I remember the house now. So I don't know why we were out there, but I remember me and me and our little buddy Smitty that we know was out there for some reason.

You did touch on I think it was just because it was in Fort Worth. Yeah. Yeah, I think so.

What you mentioned a ruse, walk us through, explain what that is and and you kind of explain why, but but kind of walk us through that so people understand, you know, at the end of the day, the objective is not to go in there. You know, you you wanna execute that search warrant safely. You don't want anything to happen to anyone.

And sometimes you have to do... You have to take steps to minimize that risk because they're dealing with the great unknown in this case. Yeah, I'm not gonna, I don't remember what the ruse that day was, but typically it's just a technique, whether it be a telephone call, whether it be a knock on the door, whatever that ruse may be, just to simply have the subject of interest to be out of the residence so it's just safer for everybody.

Sometimes it can be, maybe Jake, you can, not saying you have, not saying you haven't done this, maybe ask for a tow truck to come remove a car in the driveway or, you know, something like that. Because oftentimes when people see their car being hooked up to a tow truck, they will run out because they don't want their car repoed. Well, Well, the goal was to get them out of the house and that problem's been solved.

Sometimes it can just be a telephone call from probation or parole, like, hey, we need you to come in and talk to us, something that they're used to and they're not gonna even second guess the reasons why. It's just whatever we can think of that would give us a good opportunity to get them removed from the residence. So it just reduces the threat to everybody.

So on that day, I couldn't tell you. Who knows? I don't remember.

Who knows? Now I'm now I'm curious. What what's the craziest ruse that you recall having having done?

Well, some some of these they still use. Yeah. So I don't wanna get into...

Yeah. I don't wanna... We probably won't wanna go too far into details, but in summary, yeah, some of them are absolutely crazy.

You know, there's techniques to get them to leave the house quickly. But again, there's a very legitimate reason for that. Yeah.

I mean, and so, you know, I don't know. There are some pretty crazy ones. I'll put it that way.

Like Travis said, yeah, maybe tow trucks might have been called to hook up a car for It's really as far as your imagination can take you. I mean, you're just trying to find something that you feel is going to be important enough for that person to leave. And so that's you have to kind of have at least have an understanding of at least on how they think or what their priorities are to get them out of that residence.

Yeah. Yeah, that's a good, yeah. Now that we're talking about that, like I said, I know they still use some of them.

So I don't want to ruin it for the guys who guys and girls who are still doing it, but they're pretty. I will say this. They're pretty fun and they're funny.

Oh, man. They're creative and... Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

So you guys so they you guys execute the warrant, go in the house. He's not not in the house, but on purpose. He's at this point, probably detained in custody.

I mean, it's just a search warrant. I don't know if you have an arrest warrant yet, but we'll get to that. What'd you guys find in the house?

So, you know, we found, you know, all of his reloading equipment was still inside the house. So the reloading equipment, when I, when I talk equipment, I'm not talking just the presses. I'm talking about smokeless powder, the actual projectiles, things like that.

All of those things were present and they were all consistent with what were in the device. We went to the garage. If you go back in the way back machine, those old school yellow lantern lights, found one of those.

Conveniently, it did not have a battery in it. Also found some automotive light bulbs, which were also consistent with the type of light bulbs that were used in the device. And then in the garage, we did find the trash can that we saw in purchasing at Bed Bath and Beyond, and conveniently enough, the receipt was inside of it.

And so majority of the components were located inside the residence. The one odd thing, and I typically don't, I never did this, but for whatever reason that day, just felt compelled to do it was when we're going through his office, we're looking for documentation or anything that may have laid out design plans or anything, just another piece of evidence. I found a piece of paper, it just had weird numbers and letters on it.

And I don't know why I thought it was weird at the time, but I thought it was enough, important enough take it as evidence and put it on the return. I think it was maybe a day or two later, as I'm playing catch up from the search warrant activities, I just started running those numbers in Google. Not anticipating anything, just seeing what it got me.

And lo and behold, they were all stock numbers for books, for publications, from one of the publishers that specialized in some of the books that went over bomb making and things like that. So, of course, you know, you would you would think that a publication like that would not be very ATF friendly. We usually have conflicting views on some things.

But they were also extremely cooperative, and I asked them, you know, hey. Have you ever sold, you know, any of these books to, you know, to David? And they're like, no.

I was like, okay. They go, but we we did have a delivery to that residence with a different name. It was close enough that you could an educated person could surmise that it was just a weak attempt to change his name.

But that delivery had been over a year before the incident. So when we're talking about how long had potentially had he been planning this, well, based on the records from the publication company, we're talking at least a year. You know, and going through some of those books, you know, the device that was actually used was very similar to a device that was in one of those books.

Okay, so you guys, the evidence in the house, once you find that, I'm assuming, correct me if I'm wrong, you go secure an arrest warrant form? Right. We did a complaint.

Okay. The... With the charge of possession of an unregistered destructive device.

Does that sound right? Yes. Do you remember the arrest process of him, where he was at, how you guys took him into custody?

Yeah. So when he was rused... Matter of fact, once again, don't hold me to this, but I think the ruse had...

I think Fort Worth PD may have traffic stopped him. I think we established surveillance on his residence. And when he left...

Somehow we got him to leave. And I think... Maybe that's why you and Smitty were out why we were there now that he's So saying so anyway anyway, so during the search warrant, he's sitting in the back of a patrol car.

So as far as the arrest, he was already there. Was just a matter of handcuffing and then transporting, which was also very interesting. The transport, that's...

I don't know if you remember at the time, but for whatever reason, that case garnered a lot of media attention. I know why. I mean, it's a cool story, but there's cool stories that happened all across DFW.

But there was a big media presence at the scene, which also generated a big media presence at Tarrant County Jail, which the sheriff at the time, I don't think particularly appreciated. And I got yelled at a lot. Well, that happens.

There is always this confusion, you know, when somebody's taken into federal custody because there's not like a federal jail. And so you've got to figure out what to do with them. I mean, they've got, you know, there's obviously procedures in place.

But I think I I think that did create a little bit of a a shitstorm, if I'm not mistaken, because I think... I don't... I think you might have just shown up to the county jail.

We did like we always did. Going to Tarrant County Jail and dropping off a federal prisoner, that's what we did all the time. What we didn't know is that the media was going to be there waiting.

We didn't have any idea. Because once again, at least in my mind, in my perception, I'm like, is, I mean, this is just another case. I mean, why would you wanna cover this so deeply on TV?

And so that's, I think that's what upset the sheriff, you know. And at the time, I didn't think it was funny. Now I do think it's funny.

Because there was another, there was a TFO that was with me at the time. You know, it was, yeah. We were both kind of just like, you know, we were just praying that we were gonna get out of there, in one piece because, you know, I don't know how often...

I don't think it's ever happened before where I've gone into a jail to drop off a prisoner, with the sheriff there waiting for me. Pretty rare event. For the sole purpose of the dress me down in front of everybody, which it's his jail.

I'm okay with that. Back then, not funny. Now, pretty humorous.

Who was that? Was that Dee Anderson or? Okay.

Yeah. Dee Anderson days. Can you imagine today?

Yeah. Don't, I can't get- He'll get right in front of the camera. I can't get this guy started on the whole...

All the stuff going on here now. We'll get into that later too. There's some news stories that are interesting about that.

Okay. So did you guys... Did you interview him the day of the arrest or tried to interview him?

Well, we tried, but, you know, he didn't he didn't wanna participate in that. And that's that's completely that's completely normal. What was his demeanor then?

Was he just kinda defiant or just silent? Or... No, he wasn't defiant.

He was kind of quiet, always extremely cooperative. And I don't know if that was... He knew the gig was up because, you know, circling back you know, things we found at the search warrant.

And Jake, I don't know if you remember this, but, know, we had actually found a suicide note inside the residence. So think mentally he had already known that the gig was up. Was just a matter of time when we were gonna come get him.

And so I think was just accepting the fact that this scenario that had been created was coming to a resolution. I'm sorry, go ahead. No, that was it.

Are we getting into the suicide note or I don't, mean, outside of it being there. Was there a confession in that suicide note? No.

Most of it had to do with just apologizing to his family. But there was no written confession inside that note. Okay.

I mean, the dude just lost it basically. I mean, by all accounts, very normal, you know, wife, kids, the whole shebang, and then I don't know. So, okay, so next day you guys go for the detention hearing.

Right. And his court appointed attorney wanted to, try to get him out of jail like many of them do. The US Attorney said, quote, he's a danger to his wife and a danger to the community.

Instead of moving on after the divorce, he thought it would be better to put a bomb on her porch. He tried to kill her. It wasn't an impulsive act.

He ordered bomb making books a year ago. So based on that... And this is pretty...

You know, I I... Down here, I don't know. And you you...

You've got experience in other places now. I mean, seems like most of the time they are detained until trial, at least in the cases that we worked, you know, with your drug traffickers and your firearms offenders, etcetera. So they're in custody from the day you arrest them until the day of trial.

And the the Fed system... Or till they plead, but the Fed system does move quickly. It's not like the county system where you may go a year and a half before you ever go to trial.

Right. You're what? Ninety days?

Ninety days. Yeah. So, you know, that you're...

I mean, moving. Yeah. You're moving.

And then you're doing that in that window, you're putting a whole lot of stuff together too. Right? I mean, you've...

At this point, now you've got the prosecutors. We need this. We need this.

We need this. So you're compiling that whole case on top of what you already have preparing for trial. All right.

Let's end it right here. Fascinating conversation with Mr. Travis Riddle.

Yes. And we will continue that conversation next week. So until then, thank you guys for listening, viewing, and do us and yourself a big solid by sharing what you hear or see here, and also like, subscribe, whatever else.

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We're on Instagram. I think Ashley even has us on the TikTok. TikTok?

Yeah. Wow. I mean, I think I've been on TikTok three times in my entire life.

I get the video. People will send me the videos, but I can't open it because I don't have TikTok. Yeah.

Well, there you go. So get TikTok. We're on TikTok.

Yeah. I need to though. So until next time, we'll see you.

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