Police close in on Sydney collar bomb suspect
Police cordon off the street where Madeleine Pulver, 18, endured a horrifying 10-hour ordeal after a masked man strapped a device around her neck at her home in Sydney on Aug. 4, 2011. A manhunt was under way for an attacker who attached what turned out to be a fake bomb to the terrified teenager.
Police in Sydney have identified a suspect in the Madeleine Pulver collar bomb hoax, according to reports.
Sydney’s Daily Telegraph said detectives have spoken to a man they believe responsible for strapping the fake bomb to the 18-year-old schoolgirl's neck during an extortion ordeal.
Police said the suspect had been spoken to by detectives but not yet formally interviewed.
They identified the man from information gathered while interviewing the victim and her family.
Madeleine had told police her attacker had "old, wrinkly eyes," The Daily Telegraph reported. She also described the balaclava he was wearing.
So far no description or picture of the attacker has been made available to the public.
A police source told the Daily Telegraph that there was no need to seek public help in identifying the offender given that investigators had identified the person they believed responsible very soon after the incident.
They also told the victim and her family that there was no need for "ongoing fear or concern."
The 18-year-old girl was studying for high school exams when an intruder broke into her home in the wealthy Sydney suburb of Mosman and placed a collar around her neck saying it was a bomb.
Police worked through the night on Wednesday to try and detonate what turned out to be a hoax bomb – but not before the girl, her family and friends were traumatized.