PORT ALICE, B.C- Police investigating an explosion of a package at a Port Alice home believe it was targeted.
The Port Alice RCMP detachment are leading the investigation, along with multiple agencies.
“The Port Hardy RCMP, the RCMP Explosive Disposal Unit, an RCMP Explosives Dog, Campbell River RCMP Forensic Identification Section and RCMP Island District General Investigation Section are assisting,” stated the release.
“Canada Post is also engaged.”
The homeowner who opened the package received serious but non-life threatening injuries, and was taken to hospital.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Port Hardy detachment at 250-949-6335, or Crime Stoppers if they wish to remain anonymous.
Shirley Bowick, the wife of victim Roger Nepper, previously said the package was picked up from the post office in the remote North Island village on Tuesday, addressed to the couple.
She indicated that it had arrived from a relative in the Yukon, and had blown off her husband’s fingertips.
Bowick said she had received a few burns from the first explosion, while her husband got the brunt. She called 911, while clearing out the smoke from the bathroom where the package had been opened.
Nepper had opened the package in that part of the house as Bowick was already upstairs and nearby at the time.
As for why the package was sent to them, Bowick believed it could have been due to a dispute over money with a relative.
Corporal Tammy Douglas, the spokesperson for the RCMP on Vancouver Island, had no further information on the possibility of the bomb being sent by a relative, and said the investigation was in it’s early stages.
The Yukon RCMP had no information on their involvement in the investigation.
