Map: The location where Brian Wells was killed by a collar bomb

PNC Bank

Image source: Google Maps

PNC Bank was situated in Summit Towne Center at 7200 Peach Street, Erie.

These days, the building is home to a health care provider called UPMC Urgent Care.

At 2.27 p.m. on August 28th, 2003, Wells calmly walked into this building and gave one of the bank tellers a note. The note claimed that the bomb around his neck would explode if he wasn't given $250,000 within 15 minutes.

The robbery was doomed from the start, however, as the teller didn't have access to the vault. Realizing that he was out of options, Wells took $8,702 from the cash drawers and then left.

While all of this was unfolding, William Rothstein was reportedly parked in a nearby lot, waiting to take the money.

However, he fled the scene when he noticed that a customer seemed to be following Wells out of the building.

Gas station

The events of that fateful day started at 1.30 p.m., when Diehl-Armstrong (top-left) and Rothstein (bottom-left) called Mama Mia's Pizzeria from a payphone at this gas station.

At the time, this was the location of a Shell station. These days, it operates under the name Gulf.

During the call, they ordered two pizzas for 8631 Peach Street, which was the address of a WSEE-TV transmitter tower.

Mama Mia's Pizzeria

At the time of the murder, Mama Mia's Pizzeria was situated at 5154 Peach Street.

It moved to a new address in 2019 after a fire damaged the plaza. Judging by recent Google Street View images, the building has since been repaired and is now home to a salon.

Wells was working as a delivery driver for Mama Mia's Pizzeria.

When Diehl-Armstrong and Rothstein called from the gas station, he left the store with their order and drove to the transmitter tower.

Of course, all of this was preplanned to give the impression that he had been ambushed by strangers.

Bill Rothstein's house

This is the entrance to the WSEE-TV transmitter tower in Erie.

Bill Rothstein's house was situated right beside the entrance. These days, the property no longer exists, as it was demolished after Rothstein died from lymphoma on July 30th, 2004. The gray house in the Google Street View image above was built in 2006.

Brian Wells was seen leaving this address just one day before the robbery took place. The FBI believes that he was taking part in a "rehearsal".

On the afternoon of August 28th, 2003, the quiet-spoken delivery man traveled to the transmitter tower under the guise of delivering two pizzas. When he got there, Rothstein, Diehl-Armstrong, Barnes, and Stockton were all waiting for him.

He tried to back out of the plot once he learned that the collar bomb wasn't fake. However, he was forced to change his mind after a member of the group brandished a gun and fired a warning shot.

It seems as though Wells was double-crossed by his co-conspirators, as the timer on the collar bomb was too short for him to successfully complete the route in time.