Bomb threat forces evacuations Friday

Police interviewed a person of interest Monday in St. Louis.

By Isabelle Roughol and Sarah D. Wire, Of The Maneater staff

Published Jan. 31, 2006

MU police interviewed a person of interest in the St. Louis area Monday in connection with bomb threats that caused the evacuation of five campus buildings Friday, MU police Capt. Scott Richardson said.

Officers connected the person of interest to the phone number recorded on several caller-identification machines in the offices that were called, but police did not make any arrests, Richardson said.

The threats were made to offices inside Gannett Hall, which houses the School of Journalism, and Gwynn Hall, which is located near Memorial Union.

School employees who received the calls contacted MUPD.

Kristin Hogan, an administrative assistant for the Journalism Studies Department said she received a call at about 3 p.m. from a caller who "sort of mumbled things for a bit, and then he said there was a bomb in the building."

Hogan said the caller paused before he hung up, and Hogan wrote down the suspect's phone number from the office's caller ID.

She said the caller sounded male.

Hogan alerted others in her office, and they told her to call the police. She said police took her information and did not give her instructions about what to do next.

"The police gave me no idea what action they would take," Hogan said.

Journalism professor Charles Davis shares an office with Hogan. He said after Hogan contacted the police, he went back to work.

"There's not a high degree of response to these things," Davis said.

He said it was fortunate that the threat came so late on a Friday afternoon and that the building was beginning to empty for the day.

Davis said Hogan told him the phone call came from a 314 area code, a prefix belonging to the St. Louis area.

Pat Cloyd, building coordinator for Gannett Hall, said she learned from MUPD at about 3 p.m. that police had received a report of a bomb in the building.

She called four or five other offices in the building telling them to evacuate before she left. Cloyd also walked through Neff and Gannett halls and alerted people of the threat.

Steve Jorgensen, dean of the Department of Human Environmental Sciences, said the perpetrator placed two threatening calls to the student services office and to the Child Development Lab in Gwynn Hall at about 2:50 p.m.

"We're pretty sure it was the same guy, from the description of his voice and his demeanor," Jorgensen said.

There were between 40 and 50 people in both Gwynn and Stanley halls at the time they were evacuated, Jorgensen said. He sent all employees home because police said they were not to return to the building.

About 30 children between the ages of 2 and 5 also were evacuated from the Child Development Lab, Jorgensen said. Laura Thurman, a laboratory instructor at the Child Development Lab, said several infants also were evacuated.

The children first were brought to the area between Gentry and Read halls before being taken in two groups to Stotler Lounge in Memorial Union.

"Our biggest concern is the children," Jorgensen said.

He said parents were contacted immediately following the evacuation.

Ray Walker picked up his two children at 4:15 p.m. Friday.

"My wife got the call, called me and told me to pick them up real quick," he said.

Richardson said a K-9 unit swept both buildings and officers performed room-by-room searches. Evacuees were allowed to re-enter Gannett Hall at 4:15 p.m.