Bellingham woman sentenced for railway sabotage

On December 17, a federal judge sentenced a Bellingham woman to 12 months and one day in prison after she was found guilty of attempting to sabotage BNSF Railway tracks in north Bellingham last year. The woman will also have three years’ of supervised release and needs to complete 100 hours of community service. 

Ellen Brennan Reiche, 28, was convicted in U.S. District Court in Seattle in September for one count of violence against a railroad carrier for trying to place shunts on railway tracks near Cliffside Drive just before midnight on November 28, 2020. Shunts, which are comprised of wire and magnets, can cause trains to derail by triggering their automatic brakes. A train carrying crude oil was expected to travel through the tracks after the shunts were placed, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Reiche was arrested November 28, 2020 along with co-defendant Samantha Frances Brooks, a 24-year-old Bellingham resident, after both women were seen on surveillance footage walking along the north Bellingham tracks. Reiche and Brooks were arrested for trespassing and a shunt was later found on the tracks near where Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office deputies first saw the women, according to the DOJ. Reiche had a paper bag on her with a drill, magnetic adhesive, gloves and wire that was similar to wire used in the shunt, according to the DOJ.

Brooks was sentenced in October to six months in prison and three years of supervised release after she pleaded guilty this summer to one count of interfering with a railroad signaling system. In her plea, Brooks said she followed another person’s directive to create train delays.

“Placing a shunt on active railroad tracks puts lives in danger – to drivers preparing to cross the tracks who may not get any warning lights of an approaching train, and to the homeowners in the area who could be endangered by a train derailment,” U.S. attorney Nick Brown said in a news release on Reiche’s sentencing. “In this case, the shunt was placed just prior to the arrival of a train with 97 tanker cars loaded with crude oil. Thankfully, the device was discovered and removed before it could cause a tragedy.”

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and BNSF Railway police had been investigating over 40 shunts placed on Whatcom and Skagit county tracks since January 2020. Investigators previously said they believed the shunt attacks were environmental terrorism after someone anonymously claimed responsibility online for a shunt placed in January 2020 that was protesting a pipeline being built in B.C.