Document tells of hunt for bomber
Officials cite safety concerns for not releasing audio tape.
Law enforcement officials on Monday released a federal affidavit filed against Austin bomber Mark Anthony Conditt that gives new insight into the frantic effort to find him, but they held on to the audio confession he made before killing himself, citing pub- lic safety concerns and ongoing investigations.
“We do have some concerns with the release of that audio tape,” said FBI San Antonio Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs. “When you look at past active shooters or mass murderers, what we find is they study the previous events, and we find that sometimes these videos, these postings are, I hate to use the word inspirational, but it’s inspirational for future people who are thinking about these acts.”
Combs said Conditt made several troubling statements in his confession that authorities do not want to live forever on the internet. As law enforcement agents continue to work toward completing their investigations, they are still trying to figure out how to balance public interest in the recording and public safety concerns.
The partially redacted affidavit released Monday provides new details about the makeup of the bombs that killed two, injured several others and scarred the city.
U.S. District Attorney John Bash said the affidavit was filed March 20, just hours before Conditt’s death. The document had been filed to support a criminal complaint against Conditt that was dismissed Monday because Conditt is dead and can no longer be prosecuted, Bash said.
“The thing that we charged him with at the time was one count of the unlawful possession and transfer of a destructive device. That is an offense under the National Firearms Act, a very old statute from the 1930s that’s actually found in the Internal Revenue Code, if you can believe it,” Bash said. “That does not mean that that was the only thing we would have charged him with, nor does it mean that District Attorney (Margaret) Moore would not have also charged him with state-level offenses.”
Had Conditt been taken alive, Bash said, authorities probably would have sought an indictment that included more serious charges.
Though Conditt is dead, investigators are still pouring over computer records and other evidence to pinpoint his motive and intent, both of which have remained elusive.
According to the affidavit unsealed Monday, investigators were able to identify several similarities among the devices that exploded or were found across Central Texas, including their delivery method, manner of detonation and making. All six bombs contained shrapnel, the document said.
The first bomb exploded in the hands of Anthony Stephan House, killing him outside his home in the 1100 block of Haverford Drive on March 2.
On March 12, two more package bombs detonated. The first killed 17-year-old Draylen Mason and injured his mother in the 4800 block of Oldfort Hill Drive. The second critically injured Esperanza Herrera in the 6700 block of Galindo Street hours later, though the affidavit said it might have been addressed to a different home on the same street.
The next bomb attack happened March 18, when Colton Mathes and Will Grote hit a trip wire on Dawn Song Drive in Southwest Austin.
The affidavit said a witness told investigators she’d seen a “Drive Like Your Kids Live Here” sign when she returned to her home around 8:25 p.m. She told investigators the sign was not there when she left her house earlier that day.
Authorities concluded that the sign was used to conceal the explosive device that injured Mathes and Grote.
On March 20, two more devices were found, one of which exploded at a FedEx facility in Schertz.
The affidavit said the second device, which bomb technicians rendered safe at a FedEx facility in Southeast Austin, was inside a package and composed of a PVC pipe casing with a metal pipe inside that was surrounded by shrapnel.
The device was rigged to ignite when the flap of the package was opened, the affidavit said.
On Feb. 27, several days before the first bombing, Conditt was captured on camera purchasing several items from a Fry’s Electronics store in the 12700 block of North MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) that were later found to be in all of the bombs.
“The customer utilized a U.S. Bank credit card issued to Mark Conditt,” the affidavit said.
Investigators also found surveillance footage from a Home Depot in Round Rock of a man who looked like Conditt purchasing a “Drive Like Your Kids Live Here” sign consistent with the one seen before the March 18 explosion in Southwest Austin, and a six-pack of work gloves that matched those seen on video taken at a Sunset Valley FedEx Office store, where Conditt mailed two of the packages.
Investigators took the footage they had collected to an informant, who confirmed that the man looked like Conditt, the affidavit said.
Fred Milanowski, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ special agent in charge in Houston, said investigators fanned out to stores across the Austin metro area to identify people who had purchased components found in the bombs.
Milanowski said making the bombs took a certain level of skill, but they were not “overly sophisticated.”
“He probably had practiced somewhere,” Milanowski said. “There’s probably a field somewhere that has other pieces from where he practiced.”