Bizarre Pa. collar bomb case set for October trial despite suspect’s cancer diagnosis

Bizarre Pa. collar bomb case set for October trial

ERIE, Pa. — Federal authorities in Pennsylvania say they’ll move ahead with the prosecution of a woman charged in a bizarre bomb and bank robbery case even though she has cancer.

U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin said Thursday a medical report on suspect Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong indicates she could live at least three to seven more years even though she has cancer of the glands.

Diehl-Armstrong is charged with masterminding a 2003 bank heist in Erie. A pizza deliveryman told police he’d been forced at gunpoint to wear a bomb on a collar around his neck while robbing the bank. The bomb exploded before authorities could defuse it.

Diehl-Armstrong says she’s innocent. The judge set her trial for October.

Information from: Erie Times-News, www.goerie.com