PRINT ADS

Formal charges were filed May 2 against four men accused in an April 13 string of mailbox bombs in rural Jackson County.

Mathias Marco, 19, of Melrose, and Daniel Sye, 19, of Mindoro, each were charged in Jackson County Circuit Court with felony possession of improvised explosives and three misdemeanor counts of criminal damage to property, all as party to the crime.

Anthony Dobbs, 19, of Melrose, and Benjamin Pfaff, 18, of Mindoro, each were charged with three counts of party to the crime of criminal damage to property.

“There is no evidence that (Dobbs and Pfaff) manufactured, transported or handled the explosives,” said Jackson County District Attorney Gerald Fox.

The four were released on signature bonds after their April 17 arrest. They will appear in court May 12. Fox said earlier in the week he was not recommending federal charges because the state charges were sufficient and the four did not have a criminal history.

Pfaff told authorities Marco constructed and lit the homemade bombs inside three mailboxes on Red School Road and Highway 54 in the town of Melrose, according to the criminal complaint. All exploded, but no one was injured.

Sye drove the vehicle in the incidents, while Pfaff and Dobbs were passengers, the complaint stated.

Pfaff said Marco and Sye brought the explosive devices to Dobbs’ residence, according to the complaint.

One mailbox owner on Red School Road said his family heard a loud explosion and a car speed away about 1 a.m. April 13, the complaint stated. The man found a piece of gray duct tape with several wires attached smoldering near his destroyed $25 metal mailbox.

A sheriff’s deputy discovered a destroyed $40 mailbox and similar homemade device outside another residence on Red School Road, according to the complaint. The homeowner was out of town when the device detonated.

The third homeowner on Highway 54 found fragments of his blown-up $75 mailbox in the yard, an adjacent field and near his neighbor’s house, the complaint stated.

Police offered no information on initial reports a fourth bomb exploded against a traffic sign, Fox said.