Bizarre Pa. collar bomb case set for October trial

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Federal authorities in Erie say they will move ahead with the prosecution of a woman charged in a bizarre bomb and bank robbery case, even though she has cancer.

U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin said Thursday that a medical report on suspect Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong indicates she could live at least three to seven more years. She has cancer of the glands.

Diehl-Armstrong is charged with masterminding a 2003 bank heist in Erie. A pizza deliveryman told police he’d been forced at gunpoint to wear a collar bomb while robbing the bank. The bomb exploded before authorities could defuse it.

McLaughlin set Diehl-Armstrong’s trial for October.