FBI serves search warrants in Panaca in connection with deadly bombing

FBI agents executed search warrants Thursday in Panaca in connection with last week’s deadly bombing.

The agents, who have taken the lead in the investigation, arrived early in the morning and spent several hours in the small Lincoln County town looking for evidence.

FBI spokeswoman Bridget Pappas late Thursday would not confirm that the searches were conducted, but she acknowledged that agents were in Panaca.

“We conducted a law enforcement action in the area,” she said. “No other details can be provided at this time.”

Glenn Franklin Jones, 59, was killed in the bomb attack authorities believe he orchestrated at the Panaca home of former hospital chief nursing officer Joshua Cluff; his wife and fellow nurse, Tiffany Cluff; and their three daughters.

No one else was seriously hurt when two explosive devices detonated seconds apart, destroying a car, seriously damaging the Cluffs’ house and showering the tiny town with shrapnel. The Cluffs are staying at another residence in the area.

Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee confirmed Thursday night that a search warrant was executed at the bombing site.

“They were conducting interviews that didn’t get done last time and basically following up on leads from the investigation,” he said.

The Cluffs’ next-door neighbor, Wendell Cowart, said a stretch of Fifth Street was blocked off for several hours Thursday morning.

“They didn’t tell me anything about what they were looking for, of course,” Cowart said. “An officer did confront me and told me they are continuing their investigation.”

Glen Wadsworth, whose dad owns the house on the opposite side of the Cluffs’ home, was cooking breakfast for his father when the road was blocked off. He said he saw about 10 unmarked vehicles and that he believes they were all driven by federal officers.

”A few pulled up in front of my dad’s house and blocked access from this end of the street,” Wadsworth said.

The five houses most affected by the blasts, including two that are being lived in, were blocked off this morning, he said.

“I think most of their search was focused on a utility trailer on the property,” just north of the house, Wadsworth said. “It does still have the police tape up keeping everyone, I think including the Cluffs, out.”

Lee noted authorities in Lincoln County weren’t involved in the search warrant execution.

A week after the Panaca bombing, a manager and a resident of the Kingman, Arizona, RV park where Jones lived shared details on how he spent his last days.

The day before he blew himself up, Jones gave a Kingman neighbor $140 and some cans of soup and tuna.

A day before that, Jones left three $100 bills with the park manager for rent on the neighbor’s space.

The neighbor, Ray Brayman, said Jones had been fixing up his own place in the days before he died, spray-painting barrels he said he intended to convert into seats for a table he was putting in his RV.

But Brayman now wonders if the barrels were meant instead to transport explosives. He also speculates that Jones planned to return to Kingman before he died in Panaca the night of July 13.

“If he’s going to go to all of this trouble to fix up his motor home, why would he go up there and blow himself up?” Brayman said. “To leave all those bombs and explosives here, that doesn’t make any sense at all.”

Brayman and Kevin McCumber, manager of the Zuni Village RV park in heart of Kingman, perhaps knew Jones best during his short residency in northwest Arizona. Both men described Jones as a loner who kept to himself, never offering information about his private life.

Jones, 59, spent less than six months in the motor home he parked in space No. 69 at the RV park in the high desert community 100 miles southeast of Las Vegas.

Brayman and McCumber both said they are grateful that no one was hurt at the park.

“Look at all the people here,” Brayman said. “If that motor home had blown up, it would have taken everyone out of here.”

Police said Jones left 15 explosive devices, in various stages of completion, inside his RV when he traveled to Panaca, where he ignited two bombs and fatally shot himself.

“It’s scary as hell,” McCumber said. “I thank the Lord every day. I thank him that my people skills kept me from ever pissing him off.”

Brayman said Jones spent most of his time in his RV and was never gone for more than a couple of days.

McCumber thinks it’s strange that the Cluffs’ house was targeted, because Jones left Joshua Cluff’s name and phone number as his emergency contact information when he registered for RV park residency on Feb. 2.

Brayman said Jones rented six or seven vehicles during his stay at the RV park, including the one he blew up in Panaca. He said Jones used the vehicle several times to make trips between his RV and his nearby storage unit in the days before his death.

McCumber also said Jones visited the office to get the key to access his storage unit four or five times in the days before the Panaca blast.

“You think you know somebody,” the manager said. “He seemed like a real friendly guy, and then you learn this.”

Review-Journal writers Wesley Juhl and Kimber Laux contributed to this report. Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Find @JGermanRJ on Twitter.