A 25-year-old New York resident with a history of mental illness is suspected to be the man responsible for making four bomb threats against the University of Missouri-Rolla.

William Bleckman, director of the UMR Police Department, reports that during an interview with the suspect, FBI agents learned that the man targeted the university with the threats because he was infatuated with a UMR student he had met in Thailand. After he returned to the United States, the suspect allegedly kept track of her location and knew she was a student here in 2004 and 2005. The suspect later became upset when he learned that the woman had a boyfriend and began making bomb threats to UMR, which was the last place he knew she was located. The woman was last enrolled at UMR in 2005.

“We will be turning our report over to the local prosecutor as soon as we receive the FBI’s report on their investigation in New York,” says Bleckman. “The FBI has also informed the assistant U.S. attorney of the situation.”

On four separate occasions during the first week of September, threatening calls were made to UMR that resulted in the evacuation of the Campus Support Facility. Each time, the building remained closed for approximately 30 minutes while UMR Police conducted a search. Nothing suspicious was found during any of the searches and UMR Police determined the bomb threats were hoaxes.