ERIE — A woman accused of planning an elaborate bank robbery that ended in the death of a pizza deliveryman in 2003 says she is "totally innocent" of the charges and denies making incriminating statements to federal investigators, a newspaper reported.

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, 58, was indicted in July along with Kenneth Barnes, 53, on charges of bank robbery, conspiracy and a firearms violation in connection with the Aug. 28, 2003, robbery of a PNC Bank.

Pizza deliveryman Brian Wells, 46, told police he had been forced at gunpoint to wear a time bomb around his neck and rob the bank. As officers waited for the bomb squad to arrive, the device exploded, killing Wells. Both Diehl-Armstrong and Barnes have pleaded not guilty.

"I am totally innocent in this case," Diehl-Armstrong told the Erie Times-News. "I didn't even know Brian Wells. I'm a decent person. I try to get by in life."

Prosecutors contend that Diehl-Armstrong planned to use the bank money to hire someone to kill her father.

She is serving 7 to 20 years after pleading guilty but mentally ill to killing her boyfriend, James Roden, 45, in 2003. Prosecutors said she killed Roden because she feared he would tell authorities of the plot.

Authorities said court records that Diehl-Armstrong repeatedly spoke with investigators in the Wells case and linked herself to the bomb that killed him.

JOHNSTOWN — A career Army member left the service two years short of retirement to move here and try his hand at politics by challenging longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha.First-time candidate William T. Russell, 45, a Republican, acknowledged that taking on a popular, 18-term congressman in the 2008 election will be "an uphill battle.""But it's one that must be fought," Russell told the Tribune-Democrat in Johnstown.Russell plans to formally announce his candidacy within weeks. Murtha has declined comment on the challenge.Murtha, 75, has served in the House since 1974 and is known for bringing money and jobs — especially in the defense industries — to his district in rural Pennsylvania. A decorated Vietnam veteran and Marine Reserves colonel who previously had been hawkish on war issues, Murtha has criticized the Iraq war and pushed for the troops to be brought home. He became chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee last year.Russell, who moved from the Washington, D.C., area to Murtha's district specifically to take on the congressman, has a long Army and Army Reserve career that includes tours of duty in the Balkans and both Iraq wars. He and his wife, Kasia, were in the Pentagon when a hijacked airliner slammed into the building on Sept. 11, 2001. Both were unhurt.Murtha's call for troop withdrawal from Iraq "is just flat-out wrong," Russell said. Russell criticized Murtha's public allegations that unnamed U.S. soldiers committed "cold-blooded murder and war crimes" against innocent Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005.

RIDGWAY, Pa. — It's furry, walks on all fours, doesn't have a tail and is apparently not a bear.The only thing certain at the moment is that the images caught by an Elk County hunter have stirred new debate on the Internet about the existence of Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, as believers call the creature of folklore.Rick Jacobs, the hunter, said he planted the stationary tree camera in Allegheny National Forest to try to find a handsome buck. Instead, on Sept. 16, the camera caught images of an unusual creature, he said."We couldn't figure out what they were," Jacobs said. "I've been hunting for years and I've never seen anything like this."The hunter said that after a week of trying to decipher what had walked past his camera lens, he contacted the Bigfoot Research Organization.Images posted on dozens of Web sites have generated discussions about "Jacob's creature," as the unknown four-legged animal has become known among Bigfoot believers. The exact location of the siting has not been publicized to avoid people flocking there.