Tuesday, October 30, 2001

FBI confiscates suspicious letter
RTVF office, TCU Post Office
temporarily evacuated Monday
By Erin LaMourie
Staff Reporter

The FBI is testing the contents of a suspicious letter that caused the temporary evacuation of the radio-TV-film department offices in Moudy Building South and the TCU Post Office Monday morning, said TCU Police Detective Kelly Ham.

Roger Cooper, radio-TV-film department chairman, said he received the letter addressed to “Student Newspaper/Radio/TV” about 9:30 a.m. and called TCU Police after observing that it was unusually thick, had no return address and had negative comments written on it.

Erin LaMourie/STAFF reporter A member of the TCU Police Department leads Fort Worth officials into Moudy Building South Monday after a suspicious letter was received in the radio-TV-film department.

Ham said there was no powder or residue found on the unopened envelope, but the FBI examined the contents and tested it for foreign substances as a precautionary measure. Testing should be completed within the next 48 hours.

The radio-TV-film office was evacuated from about 10 11:30 a.m. Monday as the TCU Police, Fort Worth Fire Department and Fire Marshal, responded to the call. The letter was handled with gloves and placed in a sealed container to be taken to an FBI testing center in Dallas, said TCU Safety Director Randy Cobb.

The TCU Post Office was closed for about 15 minutes, from 10:45 to 11 a.m., said Glen Hulme, mailing services manager.

The envelope reportedly had “clean!” written in red ink in the upper left hand corner and a typed label at the top center. A hand-written message on the envelope reportedly labeled President George W. Bush as a mass murderer who is anti-humanitarian and anti-God. The message contained one expletive.

Ham said the letter was suspicious because of the markings, excessive postage of an 80 cent U.S. airmail stamp and no specific recipient.

He said the letter’s postmark was unclear but appeared to have the words south and east. He would not comment on the origin because the letter is still under investigation.

Hulme said that if he had seen the letter, he would not have labeled it suspicious because negative comments about TCU are often written on TCU’s business reply envelopes.

According to guidelines from U.S. Postal Service and the FBI Center for Disease Control displayed in the TCU Post Office, suspicious parcels include any letters without legitimate return addresses or with unusual weight for the size.

Chancellor Michael Ferrari said the letter caused concern on campus.

“Anytime you get a suspicious letter that comes with those words, it’s a matter of concern for everyone,” Ferrari said. “I think the department (RTVF) and the police handled the situation appropriately.”

Cooper said at first glance, he was not worried about the letter because he receives junk mail, but then related the letter to recent occurrences of anthrax being sent through the mail.

“Five seconds (after I received the letter), I realized this is something to take serious,” he said. “Everything going on right now makes you paranoid.”

Student postal worker Haroon Xavier said he and other student workers were told to shut down the windows, not to touch any other mail and to wash their hands.

Hulme said he assumes the letter went through the TCU Post Office but may have been passed along because student workers were uncertain of what to look for. He said he does not know which employees handled the letter and had not been able to contact the weekend student workers.

About 50 students work in the TCU Post Office.

Hulme said as a precaution, he plans to personally look at all interoffice mail and to give students further training, but said he does not think TCU should be concerned about being a terrorist target.

Ferrari said the results of the FBI testing will be released once completed.

“We are now waiting to see what the results from the FBI bring us,” Ferrari said.

Erin LaMourie
e.m.lamourie@student.tcu.edu