Revenge bombing of Chris Marquis by Christopher Dean

Citizens band radio came to my awareness with the release of movies like Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and Convoy (1978). The idea of the long haul trucker, making his own rules and getting his delivery through no matter what it took sparked wonder in my young mind. For a short time, my dad procured a CB radio, and it was accompanied by a list of common codes and phrases. Fast forward to the late 1990s, and my job for the phone company paired me with coworkers who used their own CB radios in their company vehicles – a very convenient communication tool. Though it still sees some use these days, CB radios have been gradually replaced by the technologies of smart phones.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Like most bombing episodes on Forensic Files, this one featured a homemade pipe bomb. Each homemade bomb seems to demonstrate a "signature" – a calling card of the bombmaker's technique. Two holes drilled in the bomb's end cap was Dale Fosdick's signature in the bombing of Kem Wenger, and it seems that wrapping the bomb in hex nuts to increase the shrapnel was Christopher Dean's calling card. Of course, not all bombs are homemade. Recall a commercially available explosive: A blasting cap and wired to Tovex 220 was used in Nathan Allen's truck by his uncle Pete McFillin.

Each bomb's triggering mechanism varies and typically reflects the intentions of how the bomber envisions a victim will activate it. Fosdick's explosive, and those made by James Genrich in a series of random bombings in Colorado were all detonated via motion sensors. One type is a mercury switch which uses liquid metal enclosed in glass to complete an electrical circuit when the device is tilted. However, Christopher Dean's pipe bomb was sent through a mail carrier, so a mercury switch was obviously not an option. It was not made clear in the episode nor other articles how Dean's trigger worked (which is good). It was stated that the detonation occurred when Chris Marquis cut the string on the smaller box containing the bomb. If the string was somehow energized, it's interesting to imagine a circuit which closes when a wire is cut.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Chris had run "The CB Shack" from his bedroom in rented home of his mother, Sheila Rockwell. At only 17 years old, Chris was Sheila's youngest child, and by all accounts she spoiled him. In the episode Shelia describes not knowing the scale of her son's online business dealings, but investigators cited he had in excess of over 100 transactions. The episode also mentioned that Chris had scammed customers other than Dean before, but it seemed to undersell this. Other articles, including this Wired Magazine article from December 2018, indicate that it was almost standard for Chris Marquis to con his internet customers. Sheila seemed to deny knowledge of this. But the same Wired article spoke to her knowledge and even collusion. Shelia would lie to customers who called Chris, telling them he was not available – and actually telling Dean that her son was in jail.

Given Chris' retinitis pigmentosa, an eye condition that eventually leads to blindness, it can be believed that he was bitter. Perhaps it's something that made him feel enabled to mistreat other people – especially with the newfound anonymity granted by the internet back in the late 1990s. But Sheila had also entitled and empowered her son to take advantage of others. She let him drop out of high school, yet continue to date. And it was believed that Shelia and Chris would often team up for petty shoplifting excursions. Three months before the murder, they were both caught shoplifting at an Ames in Rutland, VT.

Ironically, Christopher Dean was described as a hard-working and likeable husband. Before this horrific act, he had no criminal history. This seemed like a reversal of roles to me, at least until the Wired article strongly suggested that Dean had likely stolen upwards of $5,000 of goods from a shop in Pierceton, IN. It was likely these stolen goods that Dean was attempting to sell or exchange via the internet when he first reached out to Chris Marquis. This was further believed when it became known that the CB radio Dean was exchanging was worth twice the goods Marquis was supposed to send. But it seems the younger Chris was a more seasoned con artist.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Christopher Dean was harboring deeper issues. The mentality to undertake the steps to research, test, build and send a bomb to a virtual stranger is not a balanced one. Dean's original plan to drive to Vermont and physically confront Marquis was a far better alternative to his actual deed. Revenge on a stranger by murder four states away is irrationally extreme for a $400 slight. I recently was denied a dental insurance claim which cost me over $5,500, but bombing someone is the last thing on my mind (okay, maybe the second to last thing).

Even if Christopher Dean never planned to be investigated, let alone caught, wouldn't it have made sense for him to dispose of the evidence of his bombmaking? With a warrant, investigators gathered a number of items, including identical hex nuts, a funnel with traces of smokeless gunpowder, and most importantly, a package of batteries containing the same lot number as the battery used in the bomb. This physical evidence sealed Dean's fate, though our now-famous Wired article suggests law enforcement may have rushed to judgement.

The other physical evidence used to convict Dean was the mailing label template located on his computer. With a fictitious name and address, it's impossible to think that the label could have coincidentally been created on any other computer. And a lesson repeated in so many episodes was present here again: The average "delete" process seldom genuinely removes a computer file. At least not from those who know where to look.