Cat hair leads to arrest of woman for sending explosives to Obama

BY
CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Thursday, November 23, 2017, 8:21 AM

Cat hair “shed” light on the identity of a Texas woman accused of sending explosives to Barack Obama.

Julia Poff, a 46-year-old from outside Houston, is charged in federal court with sending explosives in 2016 to the then-president, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Social Security Administration Commissioner Carolyn Colvin.

Federal court documents filed last week say that Abbott opened his package, but that it did not detonate because “he did not open it as designed.”

The ones sent to Obama and Social Security were “rendered safe” after screenings, according to investigators' court testimony reported from KPRC.

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Woman charged with mailing explosives to Obama and Greg Abbott. The Texas governor opened his.

By Caitlin Dewey November 23 at 11:09 AM

A Texas woman has been accused of mailing homemade explosives to President Barack Obama and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) that could have maimed or killed them, according to documents filed in district court last week in Houston.

Julia Poff, 46, mailed the devices in October 2016, along with a third package that she sent to the Social Security Administration, according to the indictment. Of the three packages, only Abbott opened his. It did not detonate because “he did not open it as designed,” according to court documents.

Had the devices exploded, they would have caused “severe burns and death” to the politicians, who federal investigators believe Poff targeted for multiple reasons. She was known to dislike Obama, the investigators said, and was “upset with Greg Abbott” because “she had not received support from her ex-husband,” according to the documents. Poff had previously applied for Social Security benefits but was denied, the documents said.

Investigators traced the devices to Poff after examining several of their components, including a cigarette box and a salad dressing cap. The cigarettes were bought at a truck stop near Poff’s home in Brookshire, Tex., 30 miles west of Houston. The salad dressing was a brand Poff was known to have bought for an “anniversary dinner,” the indictment said.

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