2006 Hinsdale Pipe Bomb: Woman Recalls Incident

HINSDALE, IL – Kristen Sakoulos McGonigal was at the Hinsdale train station in September 2006 when a pipe bomb lit a trash can on fire.

Authorities said it exploded. Sixteen years later, she is expected to be a witness in the trial of the suspect, 69-year-old Thomas Zajac.

On Sept. 1, 2006, McGonigal, then 24, was waiting to pay for her monthly train station pass before she was to depart for her downtown Chicago job. Then she saw smoke.

At first, she thought nothing of it. Maybe it was because of fireworks, she reasoned.

But then she saw flames up to 4 feet high from the trash can. A lot of people stood close by, many of them men, she recalled. One nonchalantly put coins in a newspaper machine. No one stepped up.

McGonigal thought she should move the garbage can from the building, so the fire would not spread to the structure.

"I was in a skirt and heels," she said in an interview Thursday. "I pushed the metal garbage can away from the building. In hindsight, I could have blown myself up by touching the garbage can, jostling the pipe bomb."

But she thought it was merely a fire, possibly caused by a cigarette. She then boarded the train shortly after 7 a.m.

At some point, the bomb exploded in the trash can, authorities said. No one was reported injured.

Earlier this month, McGonigal, a real estate agent who lives in La Grange Highlands, received a subpoena to appear in court for Zajac's trial on federal explosives charges. It is set for Aug. 25.

He has been in federal prison for more than a dozen years. In 2010, he was convicted in an August 2006 pipe bomb incident in Utah.

According to the federal prison website, he is set to be released in March 2025. He is imprisoned in Chicago.

If he is convicted in the new case, his prison time will likely to be extended for more years. He is also suspected in a 2004 pipe bomb case in Downers Grove, where he is from.

McGonigal's life has changed a lot in the last 16 years. When the incident happened, she was living with her parents in Willowbrook. Now, she has a husband and two children.

Over the years, the Illinois charges have languished in federal court. No news stories have appeared in the state in more than a decade.

Zajac is representing himself. He has submitted a number of letters to the court with complaints about prison conditions.

Other than what she thought was a small fire, Sept. 1, 2006, was a normal day at work for McGonigal. When she returned home on the train, police were asking commuters whether they had seen anything unusual that morning.

McGonigal then informed officers about her experience.

When she got home, she told her parents it would be funny if the ATF called to interview her.

"Within 15 minutes, they came," McGonigal recalled. "They were at my house lickety-split."

She can't shake what happened.

"I could have died that day," she said. "I will remember it forever. I remember the entire day."

Thomas Zajac, 69, who has been in prison for more than a dozen years, is on trial for federal explosive charges next month. (U.S. Attorney's Office)