Nashville Police Chief John Drake said 63-year-old Anthony Q. Warner, whose home authorities searched on Saturday, is a person of interest in the Christmas morning explosion that rocked downtown Nashville, The Tennessean reports.
Anthony Quinn Warner Named as Nashville Bombing Person of Interest; photo inside
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Three people familiar with the investigation said Waner is being investigated in connection with the bombing.
Several neighbors described seeing a recreational vehicle, similar to the one that blew up on Friday morning, in the backyard of the Antioch home for several months prior to the blast.
Tony Rodriguez lives in the second home of the duplex in Antioch that law enforcement searched Saturday. He said investigators removed a computer motherboard from his neighbor’s home, among other effects.
Rodriguez said he never spoke to his neighbor and didn’t know his name. The few times Rodriguez saw the man, he was tinkering with an antenna above the house and power-washing the driveway behind their home. Rodriguez said the neighbor kept several “No Trespassing” and warning signs around his property, particularly where he kept the RV.
Last month, court records show a quitclaim deed transfer of the Bakertown Road residence from Warner to an individual with a Los Angeles address on Nov. 25 for $0.
State business records show Anthony Warner registered the company Custom Alarms & Electronics, which specialized in producing burglar alarms. The company had an alarm license from November 1993 through November 1998.
Court records show Warner was enmeshed in a family dispute when he transferred ownership of a second family home on Bakertown Road to himself about one month before his brother died in 2018.
His mother filed a petition in February 2019 asking a judge to overturn the real estate transfer, arguing that Warner, who was his brother’s power of attorney, acted in self-interest with the property transfer since it resulted in personal financial gain.
The case was dismissed in October 2019 at the mother’s request. The mother’s attorney in the matter, Yancy Belcher, said the family had asked her not to speak to the media.
The Warner family has been in Nashville for decades — at least since 1961, according to newspaper archives.
No arrests have been made. It’s not clear whether Warner is dead or alive, although authorities said previously they are analyzing tissue recovered in the blast zone; they are trying to confirm whether the remains are human. Catherine Herridge, a reporter with CBS News, shared on Twitter that authorities’ “leading theory” is that the suspect was “killed in the Nashville explosion. DNA tests on remains found at scene are being conducted to determine if they belong to suspect or someone else + Fed agents searching home person of interest.”
Below is the only image of the RV from the blast released by authorities.
According to journalist David Begnaud, a CBS News national correspondent, “At least 2 tips were called in to @FBI about Warner, prior to the explosion.” What those tips said has not yet been released.