Austin bomber dies in explosion
Police: Bomber had list of future targets, 25-minute ‘confession’ video
PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — Hours after a serial bomber blew himself up as authorities closed in, investigators discovered that the homegrown Texan who terrorized Austin for 19 days left behind a list of future targets and a 25-minute “confession” on his phone, officials said Wednesday.
After hundreds of investigators swarmed Austin in recent days to stop the bomber, it was a combination of high-tech surveillance and old-fashioned shoe-leather investigations of the bombings that led officials to Mark Anthony Conditt, an Austin resident who had no clear motive or criminal record.
Conditt didn’t appear to be motivated by terrorism or hate, but the confession investigators found on his cellphone was “the outcry of a very challenged young man” dealing with problems in his personal life, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said.
The series of bombs linked to Conditt used similar components that made it easy for officials to link the devices: unusual batteries, apparently purchased online from Asia, and nails used as shrapnel, according to U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
Trying to find the buyer of the nails, officials “went to every hardware store” in the area to find customers who had made large purchases, and they struck gold with a Home Depot store in the Austin suburb of Round Rock, McCaul said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
“The fatal mistake that led law enforcement to him — because he was pretty good at evading surveillance cameras — was when he walked into Home Depot,” McCaul said. Investigators obtained surveillance video of Conditt walking into the store in a wig and walking back out to a vehicle with a license plate connected to his name.
From there, McCaul said, investigators obtained a cellphone number linked to Conditt, which had been turned off for “a while” — until Wednesday morning.
When Conditt turned on the phone, McCaul said, investigators were able to pinpoint him at a hotel in Round Rock, which led to a police chase that ended with Conditt killing himself with an explosive in his red SUV. An officer also fired a gunshot at the vehicle, said authorities, who didn’t clarify whether that was before or after the explosion.
“If we had not found this man, there would have been more devices
and more innocent civilians would have been hurt and been killed,” FBI Special Agent Christopher Combs said.
Officials, who discovered a bombmaking room in Conditt’s home in the Austin suburb of Pflugerville, still haven’t offered any theories for why Conditt embarked on a bombing campaign that left two dead, four injured and an entire city unnerved.
But they discovered at least one chilling piece of evidence after the hunt was over: a “target list” with “additional addresses we believe he was using for future targets,” McCaul said.
Even now, figuring out a reason Conditt picked the targets he did is difficult. “It’s hard to make any rhyme or reason out of the victims,” McCaul said.
Investigators detained and questioned two of Conditt’s roommates Wednesday as officials sought to determine whether Conditt had any help in the string of bombings. One of the roommates already has been released, while the other was still being questioned, Austin police said in a statement on Twitter.
Officials also announced they had filed a federal bomb-possession charge and arrest warrant against
Conditt late Tuesday, shortly before he died. ABC reported that in the final two packages of explosives that had been sent out by FedEx, the bomber had used the sender name “Kelly Killmore.”
“Hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement officers worked together to identify and locate Conditt,” U.S. Attorney John F. Bash said in a statement.
A portrait emerged Wednesday of an introverted Christian conservative who had been home-schooled and worked at a manufacturing company before being fired last year.
In a statement released to CNN, Conditt’s parents said they were in shock and grieved for the bombing victims.
“We are devastated and broken at the news that our family could be involved in such an awful way,” the family said. “We had no idea of the darkness that Mark must have been in.
“Our family is a normal family in every way. We love, we pray, and we try to inspire and serve others. Right now our prayers are for those families that have lost loved ones, for those impacted in any way, and for the soul of our Mark. We are grieving and we are in shock.”