WESTERVILLE, Ohio - Police arrested a pair of teenagers whom they said devised a plot to blow up a church and two restaurants in this Columbus suburb.
Daniel Woodrum, 15, and Scott Ennis, 16, were being charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated arson. Investigators said the two Westerville North High School students went as far as climbing onto the roof of St. Paul's Catholic Church to plan where they would plant pipe bombs.
Police said a 15 year old who had contact over the Internet with one of the teenagers led them to uncovering the plot.
This girl, whom 10TV was not identifying for her own safety, said she was chatting with Woodrum at myspace.com when the conversation turned so scary, she was prompted to contact police.
"I was really weirded (sic) out. I didn't know what to do or how to react to him."
The girl said Woodrum told her he had an accomplice.
Police documents indicated Ennis as that second suspect. Details of the police report spelled out Woodrum's plan to shoot people at two local restaurants and plant pipe bombs at St. Paul's Catholic Church and School.
The girl told 10TV News the instant message exchange she had with Woodrum suggested an even more disturbing plot.
"Just chain up the church doors during mass and kill everybody inside so no one could get in or out."
She said Woodrum indicated he and Ennis would then kill themselves.
Westerville Division of Police Lt. Tracey Myers said the teens admitted they planned to carry out an attack.
"They went as far as climbing up on the roof of the church and planning where they were going to put pipe bombs, and figure out how they were actually going to do this."
The girl who contacted police said she could not have lived with herself if an attack on the scale of what happened at Virginia Tech University or Columbine High School took place in central Ohio.
"I know its a huge problem now," she said. "A lot of things like that have happened in the past years and nobody has really been able to stop it. And I thought I'll try and be the first."
She said she printed a transcript of the chat and called a friend to drive her to the Westerville Municipal Building since her father was not at home in order to get the information to police as soon as possible.
Investigators did not reveal which restaurants may have been the target of the plot.
Watch 10TV News and refresh 10TV.com for the latest details on this investigation.
