Nashville bomber Anthony Quinn Warner was involved in an ugly dispute over property that became so bitter that he was sued by his own mom
Warner, 63, was named by the FBI on Sunday as the lone suspect in the Christmas Day bombing outside an AT&T building, after DNA showed he perished in the attack carried out with an RV rigged to explode.
The bombing took place well before downtown streets were bustling with activity and was accompanied by a recorded announcement warning anyone nearby that a bomb would soon detonate. Then, for reasons that may never be known, the audio switched to a recording of Petula Clark's 1964 hit 'Downtown' shortly before the blast.
According to Davidson County court records, Warner’s 62-year-old brother, Steven Warner, died in September 2018, without leaving a will.
Their mother, Betty Christine Lane, who divorced father Charles B. 'Popeye' Warner years before his 2011 death, argued that the former family home, which had passed from Charles to Steven, should then legally belong to her.
Betty Christine Lane, the mother of Nashville bomber Anthony Warner, was seen on Sunday for the first time since the Christmas Day attack. She sued him in 2019 over a property dispute
Lane, who broke cover to take out the garbage, lives in the home that son Anthony Warner tried to claim possession of after the deaths of his father and brother
Anthony Warner claimed possession of the family home where his mother lives (above) in 2018 and then transferred the deed to California woman Michelle Swing, who ended the dispute by transferring ownership back to his elderly mother Christine Lane
But Lane says in her lawsuit that Anthony, acting as ‘attorney-in-fact’ fraudulently claimed the $250,000 home for himself in an August 2018 quitclaim deed transfer.
Lifelong bachelor Anthony then mysteriously gave the home to a 29-year-old, Los Angeles-based woman named Michelle Swing, whose ties to him are unclear.
The bomber's father Charles B. 'Popeye' Warner (above) died in 2011
The mother-son suit appeared to have been resolved by November of this year, however, after Swing used the same transfer process to give the three-bed, single story property back to Lane, who is still residing there today.
When DailyMail.com asked the 85-year-old Lane on Sunday about her son Anthony Warner she said she could ‘not talk about it’.
The retiree also posted signs in her yard warning she would call the cops if anyone trespassed on her driveway.
On Sunday afternoon, Lane was being comforted by her 59-year-old daughter Teresa Wardrop, who told DailyMail.com: ‘We are not going to speak to you.’
Lane's February 2019 lawsuit says the rift began when Anthony took it upon himself to administer Steven’s affairs after he died without a will.
Lifelong bachelor Anthony Warner mysteriously gave his family's home to 29-year-old, Los Angeles-based woman Michelle Swing (above), whose ties to Warner are unclear
When DailyMail.com asked the 85-year-old Lane on Sunday about her son Anthony Warner she said she could ‘not talk about it’
The retiree also posted signs in her yard warning she would call the cops if anyone trespassed on her property
Lane's lawsuit states that on August 27, 2018, Anthony Warner, acting with power of attorney, transferred his mother's interest in the family home into his own name.
The transfer ‘resulted in a personal financial gain for [Anthony] Warner’ - who paid the ‘wholly inadequate’ price of $10, according to the court papers.
That was despite tax appraisers valuing the house at $196,000 and property website Zillow estimating its worth at $223,519 at the time. More recently, the property has been estimated to be worth $249,100.
‘When defendant signed the quit claim deed deeding the real property to himself, this was an act of self-interest and as such, violated his duty to act in the best interest of his brother,’ the lawsuit adds.
At a February 2019 circuit court hearing, a judge ruled that Lane was in fact the appropriate person to control Steven’s estate.
Swing gave the property back to the elderly grandmother-of-one on August 7.
When DailyMail.com reached out to Swing on Sunday to confirm details of what happened in the property dispute she declined to answer.
When DailyMail.com reached out to Swing on Sunday to confirm details of what happened in the Warner family's property dispute she declined to answer
Last month, Warner also transferred ownership to Swing of the $160,000 home (above) where he lived and apparently constructed his RV bomb
Swing also failed to respond to questions over what sort of relationship, if any, she or her family had ever had with Anthony Warner.
DailyMail.com revealed Saturday that Anthony Warner also passed on his primary residence to Swing for nothing, just a month before launching his bomb plot in downtown Nashville.
Swing, who has family in Knoxville and studied business and marketing at the University of Tennessee, told us she knew nothing about the acquisition despite being involved in the earlier property transfer.
Bizarrely, her cell phone number is scribbled on a note currently pinned to the back door of the neatly-kept duplex, a 15-minute drive south of central Nashville.
Warner was quickly identified as the prime suspect after the FBI received more than 500 tips, including from people who had spotted an RV identical to the one used in the bombing parked up outside his house.
Officials are ‘looking at any and all possible motive’, FBI Special Agent Doug Korneski told reporters Sunday, without revealing more.
This image taken from surveillance video shows the RV that was involved in a blast on Friday. Loudspeakers on the vehicle played the soul hit 'Downtown' before it detonated
Three were injured in the blast outside of an AT&T transmission building, which wreaked havoc on phone service in multiple Southern states
It followed reports that Warner harbored deep paranoia about 5G cellular technology.
Officials say a large AT&T transmission center appeared to be a target in the attack, which knocked out phone service in multiple Southern states.
'We're still following leads, but right now there is no indication that any other persons were involved,' said Korneski. 'We've reviewed hours of security video surrounding the recreation vehicle. We saw no other people involved.'
Warner was a retired burglar alarm installer who continued to work as a freelance IT consultant.
Neighbors described him as an eccentric loner who was often spotted tinkering with unusual antennas outside of his home in Antioch, a Nashville suburb.
The home on Bakertown Road is festooned with security cameras, spotlights, and 'no trespassing' signs, as well as odd antennas.
The RV used in the bombing was normally parked in this fenced-off area next to Warner's duplex in Antioch, a Nashville suburb
The home was festooned with security cameras and 'no trespassing' signs, particularly in the area where Warner kept the RV parked
A 'no trespassing' sign also adorned the front door of Warner's duplex
Warner was often spotted fiddling in his yard with odd antennas, including this one behind his house, which appears to be a ClearStream HD digital television antenna
Spotlights and motion sensors were also clustered around the area where he kept the RV
Several neighbors have described Warner as an 'oddball' and said they'd seen an RV parked outside the home which matched the one used in the attack.
Three were injured in the massive explosion early on on Christmas Day, after the RV played a warning to evacuate minutes before the explosion.
In a bizarre twist, the RV's loudspeakers then blasted Petula Clark's 1964 soul hit 'Downtown' immediately before the bomb went off.
The attack devastated the heart of Nashville's tourist scene, a downtown strip packed with honky-tonks and bars.
Authorities said Warner was not known to law enforcement before the Christmas blast.
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