LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The masked man who locked a fake bomb to the neck of an Australian millionaire’s teenage daughter did not look like your ordinary violent criminal. The gray-haired attacker wielded a baseball bat but wore beige trousers and a light-colored dress shirt.
Along with demands for money, he left behind an e-mail address. That address helped lead police all the way from the wealthy Sydney suburb where the attack occurred to a well-heeled Louisville suburb where they arrested an investment banker, Paul Douglas Peters, at his ex-wife’s home Monday.
Peters once worked for a company with ties to the victim’s family, according to federal court documents released Tuesday that reveal more details about the ordeal 18-year- old Madeleine Pulver endured earlier this month.
Peters, 50, faces an extradition hearing Oct. 14 on charges that include kidnapping and breaking and entering.
An arrest complaint filed in court says Pulver was studying for her high school exams Aug. 3 in her bedroom when she saw the intruder walk in. “Sit down, and no one needs to get hurt,” he told her. The man locked a box around her neck and placed a lanyard and a plastic document sleeve around her neck. It contained a handwritten note with demands, the e-mail address and a USB digital storage device.
Pulver spent 10 hours chained to the device, which was removed after bomb technicians determined it did not contain explosives.
The e-mail address the attacker left was accessed three times on the afternoon of Aug. 3, from a library and camera store an hour’s drive from the teen’s home. Surveillance cameras recorded a man matching Peters’ description around that time, the complaint said.
