Warrant: Inmate suspected in bomb threats at Raleigh City Hall
A state prison inmate is suspected of being behind bomb threats that cleared Raleigh's downtown city offices three times in May, according to a search warrant released Wednesday.
The Municipal Building on West Hargett Street was evacuated on May 14, May 21 and May 30 after letters were received claiming a bomb had been placed in the building. Police didn't find an explosive device in any of the incidents.
No charges have been filed in any of the false threats.
In an application to search the Facebook account of an inmate at Carteret Correctional Institution, investigators say the inmate dated a Triangle woman before his 2011 conviction and has followed her online ever since. Someone implicated the woman in various misdeeds over the years, such as threatening letters sent to the Durham Police Department last year and letters containing white powder that were sent to a collection agency in New York in 2013, according to the warrant application. The woman was cleared of wrongdoing both times.
- Bomb threats cost schools, authorities time, money
- Triangle company's trained dogs can sniff out drugs, explosives
The second and third Raleigh bomb threats included the names of the woman and her husband, according to the warrant application. The threats started days after the woman posted online that she was pregnant.
The woman told investigators that the inmate contacted her in January through Facebook Messenger by using a cellphone in prison and that she subsequently blocked him so he couldn't contact her again, according to the warrant application.
