BENTON, La. – The latest on a bombing at a northwest Louisiana horse farm (all times local):
5:20 p.m.
A north Louisiana woman whose bedroom was bombed says she's horrified by the action but feels sorry for the arrested man.
Tracy Hewlett owns Holly Hill Farm Equestrian Center with her husband. Their maintenance worker, Douglas Holley, faces charges in the Saturday blast. On Monday, Hewlett said Holley must be mentally ill, and she wishes he'd found help. Instead, Hewlett says, he's ruined his own life.
She says other employees have told them about odd things Hewlett says against the government and about witchcraft.
Hewlett described how the bomb launched her out of bed, her husband sailing over her.
But they, their three small dogs and their cat were unharmed — though there's shrapnel in the ceiling and dagger-like splinters all over the room.
Hewlett calls coming through without a scratch "our Christmas miracle."
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10:30 a.m.
A law enforcement official says the owners of a Louisiana horse farm were sent flying from their bed to the floor by a bomb in the crawl space, but they walked away uninjured.
Bossier Parish sheriff's spokesman Bill Davis said Monday that deputies have arrested a maintenance worker, 54-year-old Douglas Holley. Davis says one farm owner is a veterinarian and had been unable to help Holley's horse earlier this year. Davis says that's the only problem the owners recall with Holley. He had worked and lived at Holly Hill Farm Equestrian Center for about four years.
Holley's been arrested on charges of attempted capital murder and making a bomb.
The bomb went off about 4 a.m. Saturday. Davis says it left a basketball-sized hole in the floor and a hole in the bottom of the mattress.
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2 a.m.
Deputies have arrested a maintenance worker at a horse farm after a bomb exploded underneath a house on Holly Hill Farm Equestrian Center.
Bossier Sheriff Julian Whittington said in a news release 54-year-old Douglas Holley was arrested Sunday evening on counts of attempted first-degree murder and manufacturing a bomb.
The two homeowners inside the house were not hurt in the explosion Saturday morning. Whittington says Holley intentionally placed the bomb underneath the home's master bedroom.
Detectives also searched Holley's residence and found bomb-making materials and indications that he had researched how to make explosives.
Whittington says Holley worked at the farm for four years.
He was transported to the Bossier Maximum Security Facility. It isn't clear if he has an attorney.
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