Cat Hair Leads To Woman Accused Of Mailing Bombs To Obama And Texas Governor — Caught Via ‘Sloppy Packaging’

A Texas woman is accused of mailing bombs to former President Barack Obama and Governor Greg Abbot, and the clue that led to her came from her cat. Julia Poff was indicted in federal court for the 2016 mail bombs, which numbered three in all.

Law enforcement officials believe the motive behind Julia Poff’s alleged bomb-sending was due to her anger toward the governor who she somehow blamed for not receiving support from her ex-husband. The 46-year-old woman was the alleged bomb maker, but thankfully for Governor Abbot’s sake, she wasn’t a very good at it as the device sent to him failed to detonate when he opened the package.

According to Chron, the botched explosive sent to Governor Abbot was stuffed inside a cigarette pack and the botched device didn’t explode upon opening that package. However crude this bomb was, “it could have caused severe burns and death” if it detonated as it was originally designed to do, according to the court documents.

A similar package with a bomb was sent to Barack Obama, but it never made it through the screening process that his mail goes through, so he never received the package. The court documents indicate that Poff didn’t like Obama either, but they did not elaborate on her reason behind her disdain for the former president.

The court documents allege, “Using a salad dressing cap from a bottle purchased for an anniversary dinner, Poff allegedly cobbled together an explosive with black powder and pyrotechnic powder, then slipped it in the mail to the governor,” according to Chron.

https://www.facebook.com/NYDailyNews/posts/10154996741967541

When Abbot received the package back in 2016, it didn’t blow up because he didn’t open it correctly or the way the bomb maker designed the package to open. When the package was examined by agents working the case, they found an eBay shipping label that was damaged, indicating she originally received the packaging via eBay.

According to the New York Daily News, Poff allegedly used the same packaging that came with an eBay package she received. Reusing that package offered up a damaged shipping label and cat hair.

What brought Poff to the head of the list was a sloppy packaging job on the third bomb she allegedly sent. This bomb was sent to the Social Security Administration in Maryland. Court documents indicated she was turned down for benefits. That packaging included cat hair.

https://www.facebook.com/circa/posts/1607884969278222

There was cat hair found stuck on the packaging label and that hair was a match for her cat. According to Chron, “After diverting the package, agents discovered that cat hair caught in the shipping label was ‘microscopically consistent’ with the hair of one of Poff’s pets,” which is reported in the court records.

Poff maintains her innocence and claims she is being set up. In the search they did in her home in Texas, she told reporters that “trash” was taken from her family’s home that had “our” fingerprints on it and those items were “used in some serious crimes that we did not commit or know nothing about.”

Her history with law enforcement ranges from being charged with more than $5,000 of food stamp fraud to stuffing potatoes down the toilets and cement in the drains of a rental home before vacating the premises. Reports indicate she has been “convicted repeatedly” from a variety of rental properties. On Friday a judge ruled against releasing Poff, citing “a serious risk that the defendant will flee.”

[Featured Image by Winslow Townson/AP Images]