FBI Officially Closes Austin Serial Bomber Case

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Patch has learned the FBI has closed its investigation into the Austin serial bombing case — a campaign of terror that had the city on edge over the course of several weeks last spring — while concluding the domestic terrorist launching the attacks acted alone and wasn't driven by a specific ideology.

Seamus Hughes, the deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, provided Patch with a copy of a federal court document he obtained effectively closing their case. Filed on Dec. 10, the document concludes Mark Conditt, 23, acted alone without help and was not connected to any extremist group.

Yet even while assuring the case is now closed, the FBI asked the court to keep details of the investigation shielded from public purview. The title of the document reveals the FBI's aim at ensured secrecty: "Motion For Limited Unsealing For Multiple Search Warrant Affidavits."

After several weeks of parcel bombings in Austin that paralyzed the city with fear — including package bombs that left two dead and others maimed — Conditt met a grisly end. He died in the same manner in which he had inflicted his terror, blowing himself up with his handiwork after being cornered by police in Pflugerville.

There was wide speculation that Conditt was driven by racist hatred given that the two fatalities from his terror campaign were African American. But the FBI concluded that was not the case, based on its investigation.

"During the investigation into Conditt and the Austin bombings, the Government requested multiple search warrants," the FBI noted in its Jan. 10 report. "Analysis of the available data seized

pursuant to those search warrants is now complete. The Government also analyzed voluminous records acquired through other investigatory techniques and conducted multiple interviews. In the course of its investigation, the Government found no evidence of communications or links between Conditt and any international terror groups or domestic hate groups."

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Despite the investigation's conclusion, the FBI — citing concerns investigative methods might compromise other cases among other pressing issues — requested limited information into the agency's findings be released to the public despite the closing of the case.

"Pursuant to the court's order, the Government is notifying the court through this motion that the investigation is closed and is proposing certain redactions to the affidavits in these cause numbers," FBI officials wrote. "The government's motion and the court's order...identified several interests that justified limited redaction of the complaint documents, including the possible chilling effect on information provided by informants and witnesses to law enforcement; the potential hindrance to ongoing law enforcement investigations if certain details were revealed; the potential hindrance to law enforcement if certain investigative techniques were made public; innocent third parties; rights to privacy; and the disclosure restrictions related to certain protected records and to personal identifying information, as imposed by law and the rules of the court."

That stance is likely to give rise to heightened suspicion among much of the citizenry, particularly members of the African American community who mourned the deaths of an adult man and promising young student, both black, when they opened Conditt's lethal packages in two separate incidents. One elderly woman seriously injured in one blast is Hispanic, further fueling theories of nefarious motives fueled by hatred of particular race or ethnic groups.

The first bomb detonated on March 2, killed Anthony House, 39, on his doorstep. Just 10 days later, Draylen Mason, 17, was killed when he opened a package delivered to his home. Mere hours after that, Esperanza Herrera, 75, was seriously injured in a separate blast.

Given the victims' backgrounds, speculation was heightened the victims were targeted based on their cultural backgrounds. During a press conference apprising members of the media on the investigation into the case last year, Patch asked a U.S. Attorney John F. Bash to reconcile his assertion that victims were randomly picked with the specificity of their names and addresses found on the deadly parcels. Without providing details or a full explanation into the official conclusion, Bash simply responded the attacks were random in reiterating the claim.

"I think when people have spoken of random, they mean the lack of a connection between the suspect or between the different targets, not that there was no address on the package," Bash offered cryptically during a news conference staged after the bomber blew himself up after being cornered by police.

Like the court document's still unanswered questions, very little was offered in the way of detail to shed light to the terror campaign during the April news conference. And given the FBI's request for further secrecy as it relates to their concluded investigation, answers to many residents' remaining questions might never be fully answered in allaying their fears or putting to rest lingering doubts.

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>>> Image: U.S. Attorney John F. Bash, flanked by several other law enforcement officials at April 2018 press conference; photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff.